Dealing with Failure and Defeat

Chuckle: A motorist, after being bogged down in a muddy road, paid a farmer twenty dollars to pull him out with his tractor. He said to the farmer, "At those prices, I should think you'd be pulling people out of the mud day and night." "Can't. At night I haul water for the hole."

Quote: "The man who wins may have been counted out several times, but he didn't hear the referee." --H. E. Jansen

DEALING WITH FAILURE AND DEFEAT

"My days are over. My hopes have disappeared. My heart's desires are broken" (Job 17:11 NLT).

Let's learn together how to overcome failures and be victorious in our Christian living. In our passage, Job expresses how some of us feel at times. If you don't feel the need for a lesson on handling defeat and failure right now, just take note - you will at some point in your life.

John F. Kennedy once said, "Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan; no one wants to claim it." Wouldn't it be wonderful if everything in life was successful - every relationship fulfilling. But, even for Christians, life is a combination of both successes and failures; victories and defeats; gains and losses. And sadly many of these failures we bring on ourselves by poor decisions and choices. But, God has an answer for us.

First, we must realize that everyone fails. Peter failed his Lord miserably when he fled, along with the other disciples, from the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:56). And he failed again when he denied Jesus by saying he didn't know him (Matthew 26:69-75). James 3:2 tells us, "We all stumble in many ways." Isn't that the truth? We all make mistakes - fumble the ball - mess up. It's not "if" but "when" we fail. We have to learn to deal with, and overcome, failure and defeat.

"There is not a righteous person on earth who does what is right and never sins (makes a mistake)" (Ecclesiastes 7:20). No one is perfect. The very best basketball players only make 50% of their shots. The best baseball hitters only get one out of three. Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs, but struck out 1330 times. "For all have sinned and fall short of God's glorious standard" (Romans 3:23 NLT). I heard about a preacher, who said to his congregation, "let's bow our heads and pray for our falling shorts."

R. P. Macy tried to start a department store seven times before he succeeded by founding the world famous Macy's of New York. Failure and defeat are as much a part of life as success and victory. But, we have to learn to deal with and overcome them -- and we have a source of strength to do just that. God often gets your undivided attention after you have experienced failure. And he often takes you back to the time and place of your failure in order to teach you and create something wonderful in your life. He wants us to learn and profit from our failures.

Love, Jerry & Dotse