Failure Isn’t
Fatal
Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not
be afraid or discouraged. Take all your fighting men and attack Ai, for I have
given you the king of Ai, his people, his town, and his land. You will destroy
them as you destroyed Jericho and its king. (Joshua
8:1-2)
I have a
distinct memory from the 1991 Super Bowl. I'm not what you would call a
football junkie, nor do I have some sense of extraordinary recall. Truth is, I
don't remember anything about the '91 football season – except one, small detail.
A headline. An observation prompted by Scott Norwood's kick. He played for the
Buffalo Bills, and the city of Buffalo hadn't won a major sports championship
since 1965. But that night in Tampa Bay it appeared the ball would finally
bounce the Bills' way. With seconds to go they were a point down. They reached
the Giants' twenty-nine yard line. There was time for only one more play. So, they
turned to their kicker, Scott Norwood. All-Pro. Leading scorer of the team. As
predictable as snow in Buffalo.
The world
watched as Norwood went through his pre-kick routine. He tuned out the crowd,
selected a target line, got a feel for the timing, waited for the snap, and
kicked the ball. He kept his head down and followed through, and by the time he
looked up, the ball was three quarters of the way to the goal. That's when he
realized he'd missed. The wrong sideline erupted. All of Buffalo groaned.
Norwood hung his head. The headline would read "Wide and to the right: The
kick that will forever haunt Scott Norwood." No do-overs. No second
chance. No reprieve. He couldn't rewind the tape and create a different result.
He had to live with the consequences. And so did Joshua.
He had suffered
a humiliating loss. The people of Ai, though fewer in number, had proved
greater in might. They’d pounced on Joshua's men, resulting in an unexpected
defeat. One of the soldiers, it was learned, had disobeyed God's earlier
command. The commander was left with the distasteful, unpleasant task of exposing
and punishing the rebellion. And Joshua offered a prayer: "Alas, Lord GOD,
why have You brought this people over the Jordan at all – to deliver us into
the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us?" (Josh. 7:7) Not one of Joshua’s better
days.
The guy had been
making field goals his entire life. He showed courage as a spy for Moses. He
assumed the mantle of leadership. He didn't hesitate at the Jordan. He didn't
flinch at Jericho. But in the episode called "Achan's Deceit and Ai's
Defeat," he had failed. In front of his army, in front of the enemy, in
front of God . . . he’d failed. Joshua dragged himself back to his tent. The
entire camp was somber. They had buried thirty-six of their soldiers and
witnessed the downfall of a countryman. Joshua sensed the glares and stares of
the people. Joshua's not a good leader.
He doesn't have what it takes. He
knew what they thought. Worse yet, he knew what he thought. His mind sloshed
with self-doubt. What was I thinking when
I took this job? It's all my fault.
The voices – he heard them all. You probably have, too.
When you lost
your job, flunked the exam, or dropped out of school. When your marriage went
south; when your business went broke. When you failed. The voices began to
howl. Like hyenas in a cage, they were laughing at you. You heard them. And you
joined them. You disqualified yourself, berated yourself, upbraided yourself.
You sentenced yourself to a life of hard labor in the Leavenworth of poor
self-worth. Failure finds us all.
Failure is so
universal we have to wonder why more self-help gurus don't address it.
Bookstores overflow with volumes on how to succeed. But you'll look a long time
before you find a section called "How to Succeed at Failing." Maybe
no one knows what to say. But God does. His book is written for failures. It’s
full of folks who were foul-ups and flops. David was a moral failure, yet God
used him. Elijah was an emotional train wreck after Mount Carmel, but God
blessed him. Jonah was in the belly of a fish when he prayed his most honest
prayer, and God heard it. Perfect people? No. Perfect messes? Absolutely. Yet
God used them.
A surprising and
welcome discovery of the Bible is this: God uses failures. God used Joshua's
failure to show us what to do with our own. God quickly and urgently called
Joshua to get on with life. "Get up! Why are you lying on your face?"
(Josh. 7:10) "Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed; take all the people of
war with you, and arise, go up to Ai." (8:1) Failure’s like quicksand.
Take immediate action or you'll get sucked under. But one stumble doesn’t define
or break a person. Though you failed, God's love doesn’t. Face your failures
with faith in God's goodness. He saw the collapse coming.
When you stood
on the eastern side of your Jordan, God could see the upcoming mishap of your
Ai. Still, he tells you what he told Joshua: "Arise, go . . . , you and
all this people, to the land which I am giving." (1:2) There’s no
condition in that covenant. There’s no fine print. There’s no performance
language. God's Promised Land offer doesn’t depend on your perfection. It
depends on his. In God's hands no defeat is a crushing defeat. "The steps
of good men are directed by the Lord. He delights in each step they take. If
they fall, it isn't fatal, for the Lord holds them with his hand." (Ps.
37:23-24)
You must believe
that God's grace is greater than your failures. Pitch your tent on promises
like this one: "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus . . . who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."
(Rom. 8:1,4) Everyone stumbles. The difference is in the response. Some stumble
into the pit of guilt; others tumble into the arms of God. Those who find grace
do so because they "walk according … to the Spirit." They hear God's
voice. They make a deliberate decision to stand up and lean into God's grace.
As God told Joshua, "Do not be afraid, nor . . . dismayed; . . . arise, go . . . ." The prodigal son
did it. He resolved, "I will arise and go to my father." (Luke 15:18)
Remember his story?
Just like you,
he was given an inheritance; he was a member of the family. Perhaps just like
you, he squandered it on wild living and bad choices. He lost every penny. His
trail dead-ended in a pigpen. He fed hogs for a living. One day he was so
hungry that the slop smelled like sirloin. He was just about to dig in when
something within him awoke. Wait a
second. What am I doing wallowing in the mud, rubbing shoulders with the pigs?
Then he made a decision that changed his life forever. "I will arise and
go to my father." You can do that, too.
Perhaps you
can't solve all your problems, or disentangle all your knots. You can't undo
all the damage you've done. But you can arise and go to your Father. Landing in
a pigpen stinks, but staying there is just stupid. Rise up and step out. There’s
no future in the past. You can't change yesterday, but you can do something
about tomorrow. Put God's plan in place. God told Joshua to revisit the place
of failure. "Arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king
of Ai, his people, his city, and his land." (Josh. 8:1) In essence, God
told Joshua, "Let's do it again. This time let’s do it my way." Joshua
didn't need to be told twice.
He and his men
made an early morning march from Gilgal to Ai, a distance of about fifteen
miles. He positioned a crack commando unit behind the town. Behind this
contingent was a corps of five thousand men. (Josh. 8:12) Joshua then took
another company of soldiers and they headed in the direction of the city. The
plan was straight out of Military Tactics 101. Joshua would attack, then
retreat, luring the soldiers of Ai away from their village. And it worked. The
king of Ai, still strutting from victory number one, set out for victory number
two. He marched toward Joshua, leaving the town unprotected. The elite squad
charged in and set fire to the city. And Joshua reversed his course, catching
the army of Ai in the middle. The victory was complete.
Contrast this
attack with the first one. In the first, Joshua consulted spies. In the second,
he listened to God. In the first, he stayed home. In the second, he led the
way. The first attack involved a small unit. His second involved many more men.
The first attack involved no tactics. His second was strategic and
sophisticated. The point? God gave Joshua a new plan: try it again, but this
time do it my way. When he followed God's strategy, victory happened. Peter,
too, discovered the wonder of God's second chance.
One day Jesus
used his boat as a platform. The crowd on the beach was so great that Jesus
needed a buffer. So he preached from Peter's boat. Then he told Peter to take
him fishing. The apostle-to-be had no interest. He was tired; he had fished all
night. He was discouraged; he’d caught nothing. He was dubious. What did Jesus
know about catching fish, anyway? Peter was self-conscious. People packed the
beach. Who wants to fail in public? But Jesus insisted. And Peter relented.
"At Your word I will let down the net." (Luke 5:5) This was a moment
of truth for Peter. He was saying, "I will try it again, your way." And
when he did, the catch of fish was so great that the boat nearly sank.
Sometimes we just need to try again with Christ in the boat. Failures are fatal
only if we fail to learn from them. Don't spend another minute in the pigpen.
It's time to rise up. Don't waste your failures by failing to learn from them.
It's time to wise up. God has not forgotten you. Keep your head up. You never
know what good awaits you.
Scott Norwood’s thoughts
of the missed kick wouldn’t leave him. He couldn't sleep, and he was still
upset when the team returned to Buffalo. In spite of the loss the city hosted
an event to honor the team. The turnout was huge. Norwood took his place on the
platform with the other players, but lingered in the background, hidden behind
the others. In the middle of a civic leader's speech, this chant began:
"We want Scott." "We want Scott!" The chant grew in volume
until the speaker had to stop. Norwood's teammates pushed him to the front of
the stage, and when the fans saw Scott, they gave him a rousing ovation. He had
missed the kick, but they made sure he knew he was still a part of their
community.
The Bible says
that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. (Heb. 12:1) Thousands
upon thousands of saved saints are looking down on us. Abraham. Peter. David.
Paul . . . and Joshua. Your grandma, uncle, neighbor, coach. They've seen God's
great grace, and they’re pulling for you. Press your ear against the curtain of
eternity and listen. They’re chanting your name. They’re pulling for you to
keep going. You may have missed a goal, but you're still a part of God's team.
Grace,
Randy
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