The thing I love about God is He intentionally guides people into failure….The whole thing [life/growing up] is designed so we try again and again until we finally get it right. And the whole time He is endlessly patient (p.29).”
I don’t want to pretend to understand the mind and wisdom of God but reflecting upon this quote makes me ponder the value of failure. What is so valuable about failure, about having to try again and again that we’re designed from the beginning of life to have to learn and grow from getting it wrong instead of having it all figured out from the start? What concepts, qualities or lessons are learned through failure that perhaps could only really be grasped through such an experience? Even more, what concepts, qualities or attributes about God can only be fathomed in these moments of failure?
Immediately, Romans 5:1-5 comes to mind (thanks Holy Spirit!):
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
While suffering may not exactly be failure, I feel the two go together. We often experience suffering when we fail. Here, Paul reminds us that it is our sufferings – our failures – that produce in us endurance which builds character leading to an unwavering hope planted in the sure foundation of God’s love for us in Jesus. I guess that’s a pretty good reason to be okay with suffering. I don’t want to be a flake when it comes to faith. I want depth and commitment and unswerving confidence no matter what comes my way. That’s the “meat and potatoes” that get developed through failure. That’s what I feel is currently being developed in me as I view much of this last year as failure. Sure, that’s a bit of an emo exaggeration but yeah. God’s up to something and is using a painful, failure-like way of doing it…so Paul says to rejoice!
Why do we rejoice? Because hope does NOT disappoint. GOD does not disappoint. He doesn’t leave us hanging or flake out on us or give up on us when we mess up yet again. Instead, we see and read that “God is endlessly patient”. Wow.
In failure, I experience God’s patience, God’s presence and the cultivation of His Spirit for the work He has planned in advance for me to do. In failure, I am able to comfort others
So fail and rejoice. Then, fail some more. What do we have to lose? Nothing compared to what we will gain.
PS – I also really liked the last paragraph of Chapter 4 on p.30 but that would require a whole other post, and this is enough for now. 😉
Prayer Request: Patience, discernment, and a “rejoicing spirit” with my health sitch. I learned today [12/2/15] that while my 90 days are up, it’ll still be another 10-14 days before we get the blood work back aka 10-14 days before I can begin the process of reentering food.
B Stud Blog: 
My first reaction to the bit of Love Does that you quoted there is one of slight skepticism. I’m not sure how I feel about the statement that God intentionally guides us into failure. It makes me think of 1 Corinthians 10:13 and Philippians 4:13 and the myriad examples of God using people who were formerly failures (i.e. most of the heroes and stories of the Old Testament) and helping them to succeed to further HIS purposes. (Perhaps that’s part of the key.) I’d love to hear further thoughts on that though from you guys.
But what I do really love about the implications of this concept and of your reflections is the fact that, whether God is intentionally steering us into failure or simply allowing us to experience it when we go our own way, God will not abandon us in our failure. He doesn’t see anyone as a wash-up, or a lost cause, or a poor track record, or an almost or what-if or could-have. In fact, when all supposed friends have turned the other way or abandoned one in the aftermath of his or her failure, isn’t it God who remains faithfully by his or her side and is ready at a moment’s notice to help restore him or her?
God is cool. Thanks for sharing Amy girl. And we’re all definitely still praying for health stuff. Keep us updated.
-LS
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I see where you’re going here Schwarles. Kind of like the debate of God allowing/causing bad things to happen.
Here are my random, initial, not really thought-out, thoughts:
I like to think that God is a good and loving God. Therefore, not leading us into failure. However, I do think that He often leads us into situation where we end up failing. But is that our own doing that causes the failure?
Not to bring everything back to Kyle (sorry, it’s going to happen occasionally), but this is something I have struggled with. Our relationship failed and we weren’t meant to be. So why did we get to the point we did? I consider both of us to have strong relationships with God. We both felt like we were following God when we got into the relationship and while we were in it. But was that really God’s plan? For us to fail? Or were we both off in our relationships with Him that we missed His direction to not be in a relationship together? Did God intentionally lead us into the relationship, knowing it would fail, but knowing that we both needed it for some reason? I don’t know. Like I wrote in my post, I do think a lot of learning has happened from it and will continue as I move forward. And I praise God for that. But if it was His intent for us to go into that and fail, why would He want me to go through that and be so hurt in the ways I was? Just something I have been pondering.
God wants us to be more like Him and to be close to Him. There’s an Oswald quote that talks about how He keeps bringing us to the thing that is pulling us away (and, I would assume, failing at) until we no longer fail and are one with Him in it. So is that Him purposely leading us to failure. Or is that Him leading us in His plan, we just mess up ourselves and keep failing along the way.
Whew. So much for one night. I’m not even sure what to think now. Sorry for the ramblings 🙂
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Carly,
That is a great ponder. I don’t know the answer. My first reaction includes:
a) James 1:13-14 — “13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed”, though it obviously doesn’t completely apply because it’s referring to temptation and not bad or difficult circumstances. Amy, further thoughts?
b) The idea of free will and how God knows what would have been better but lets us choose our own ways. I think this is compounded by the fact that we don’t live in a vacuum and are thus affected by everyone else on earth also choosing their own way — thus, I don’t think that either you OR Kyle acted “outside God’s will” by entering a relationship and, simply because this is a fallen world and we are fallen people, sometimes even good things don’t work out. I think the “answer” to this question may just have to be that we’ll find out what was up when we can ask God face to face. Until then, trust that He knows what He is doing has to be enough. And I think circumstances like this one build that trust much more completely than a set of circumstances that we could understand.
I was reading this morning right after I read these comments and read Hebrews 5:7-9 — “7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”
I think the most intriguing part of this verse is the last part of verse 7 — “he was heard because of his reverent submission.” My weird version (NCV?) actually says “His prayers were answered because He trusted God.” At first glance, it could be interpreted that God only answered Jesus’ prayer because Jesus trusted first – an answer given on the basis of a fulfilled requirement.
But couldn’t we could argue that His prayers weren’t answered because He was asking for deliverance from the cross and didn’t receive it? Here’s how I then realized you could understand the verse – “God’s answer to Jesus’ prayer was enabling Jesus to trust in God’s plan.” Perhaps the meaning we can derive is that any time we pray, what we ultimately need is for God’s will to be enacted and thus, in whatever tangible result or response we are able to observe, we can trust that God IS answering that prayer.
Time for work. More later 🙂
-LS
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Yeah, I hear what you’re saying, Schwarles. I’m not comfortable with the idea that God intentionally leads people into failure either. Perhaps this was just my interpretation, but I view this more as a semantics trip-up and wonder what perceptions/ideas of failure we personally bring into reading this. I don’t read God intentionally leading us into failure meaning that He leads us into sin or wayward paths. We’re not pieces on God’s chess game of life. He doesn’t take pleasure in playing games with us or seeing if we’ll take the bait to run down a dead end trap. That’s not our Heavenly Father.
Rather, my takeaway from this is more fixed on the idea that things like learning, growing, and cultivating persistence are components God built into how life here works. I’ve learned, grown and become persistent through times when I haven’t gotten it right (failed). When I get it right, I don’t have anything to learn (besides growing in competency, of course).
To learn to do anything “correctly” means we at some point had no knowledge of what is “correct”. When you took me out driving, I pretty much failed at driving stick. But it was through that experience that I first learned how to drive a manual at all. I learned I can’t let the clutch go when I shift gears or else the car stalls. From failure – not properly engaging the clutch – I was afforded the experiential learning opportunity to grow. That’s the kind of “failure” I’m reflecting upon in the post. The idea of life as a never-ending learning process. The idea that God can mold and perfect me even when I feel I’m at my lowest and will never get it right. The idea that God doesn’t give up on me. The idea that in fact, God does some of His very best work from working with failures or lowly means.
We even read this mind-blowing, I-don’t-even-know-what-to-make-of-this passage in Luke 2:52 that Jesus, Himself, increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and with man. Here we see the craziness of Jesus being fully God and perfect and all-knowing and yet fully man, here, teenage boy, who is growing up. I don’t get it but I love that this passage is in the Bible.
Another component of failure I went off on is the idea of suffering. Perhaps I could engage in the conversation you and Carl are having about free will, God’s role in allowing evil, etc. if we’re talking about “suffering” instead of “failure”. I’m sorry for getting caught up on words…maybe an in-person conversation would be easier here…
To me, it’s the broken jars of clay concept in 2 Corinthians 4:5-18. The more cracks in the jar, the more the light of Christ can shine through.
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In response to Schwaar’s second post, last question…just because a prayer isn’t answered in the way we’d like it to be, doesn’t mean it’s not answered. God hears our every prayer and answers it with a Yes, No, or Not Yet. Certainly, we should pray boldly and with all confidence to our loving Father but also in submissive obedience to God’s will as Jesus teaches His disciples to pray (“Thy will be done”). I like how you said it, Lauren – pray “for God’s will to be enacted”.
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Wowzas. Lovely posts ladies.
To Amy’s points…I think a lot does have to do with the way we interpret it. I do believe we have a loving God that wants the best for us, and I do believe there are so many things in this life (some we don’t even realize) that get in our way sometime (Schwaar’s point). I like your way of looking at things Amy, I feel I have tended to focus on the difficult/hard/not fun parts of failing, where you look more at the positives. I think it’s when we have the bigger failures in life (relationships, jobs, etc), that we see the not as good side affects that make me personally start to ponder these things more. I think that goes hand in hand with your suffering point.
In reading and trying to process through things lately, I keep coming back to Isaiah 55:8-9. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” And I think that’s it. We have to be ok with not fully understanding. Which for me, is very, very hard. I like to find answers to everything and be able to wrap my head around an idea. Sometimes that is not God’s plan. This is a clip from a devo I had the other day that really spoke to me.
“With God, where we aren’t all-knowing, and He is, where we might not ever get explanations for the whys behind situations, it is even more crucial that we tenaciously fight to trust God’s goodness despite our lack of understanding. Because no matter what the situation, God is always working for good. Always. Many times we’ll see that in hindsight, but God will silently give us opportunities – as he did with Job – to trust his heart, even when we don’t have the light of understanding. And it is deeply precious to Him when we do.”
He wants us to trust Him, even when we don’t understand, because He knows us better then we know ourselves, which blows my mind! So, I’ve hit on Schwaar’s points now too. But one last verse that has been hitting me as well (and one that I have decided will be my next craft project *cough, who wants to joing, cough* is Like 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
If I pray the prayer that I want His will to be done in my life, I have to be ok when that happens and it’s not what I think it’s going to be. Hard, but super convicting.
Two final things, because I feel like everything I run across these days somehow revolves around these themes (Ok God, I’ll take the hint :] ) You may discuss these if you’d like. (BTW, I’m really loving getting to dive into these posts at the end of the day. I feel so full right now. My heart is all kinds of warm and fuzzy!)
“When we have a certain belief, we kill God in our lives, because we do not believe Him, we believe our beliefs about Him and do what Job’s friends did–bring God and human life to the standard of our beliefs and not to the standard of God.” –Oswald Chambers, Run Today’s Race
-This goes back to the Isaiah 55 verse. Man, crazy to think we try to but God into our own terms and beliefs when He is so much more than we can imagine.
And finally…another Oswald from yesterday. Lauren, it hits on your point of trusting in God, even when He doesn’t give us tangible answers.
http://utmost.org/my-rainbow-in-the-cloud/
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Thanks for this, Carly. You were on a roll there!
Your reflections made me think of a sticky-note hanging in my room from a sermon a friend shared with me. It says, “The Father is honored most not when we give him our praise but our TRUST.”
Another friend of mine has been wrestling with this question lately: “…but do you trust Me?” In response to any heartache or tragedy or adversity or failure, the question she’s reflecting upon is, “…but do you trust Me?”
I won’t expand upon those two ideas. Just wanted to leave them here since they came to mind as I read your post, Carly.
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Great ideas, Amos Graymos 😉
So. After I read your thoughts, I came across the Desiring God article of the day. I REALLY think God’s trying to tell me something here. haha. I literally cannot escape the constant references to the same topic 😉 There was another I ran across this morning that I didn’t even post about. But. Enjoy this article. I think it could have been your friends sermon, Amy.
http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/if-i-only-knew-why
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Just listened to this sermon by Timothy Keller entitled “Does God Control Everything?”. It wrestles with God’s sovereignty and free will. I appreciated his comment about Western culture and how we have an “either/or” way of thinking that doesn’t know what to do with a “both/and” idea. Keller does a nice job of holding the both/and tension of God’s sovereignty and our free will. I think you’ll all enjoy the listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDbKCZodtZI
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Excellent. Will listen soon.
-LS
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