It's About How You Fail

Have you ever watched a child fall and get so flustered that they fall while getting up again. Unless someone else steps in, you can watch someone fall, get up, fall, get up, until they decide that its no use, and just stay down.

All summer I teach climbing. I don't climb much, but I've taught it for three years now. The near sure sign of defeat for a kid on a wall is when they start jumping and grabbing frantically. When they panic and start grabbing for hand holds they will inevitably knock their feet off, then their hand will suddenly have their body weight (not all of it because we being the supportive belayers we are, are holding about half) and then their hand slips off. After three or four rounds of this they will slump into the harness, grab the rope, and ask to come down.

Today I heard a song by a band I had never heard of, Beautiful Mistake. It was called "Circular Parade". One of the lines (yeah - the only one I understood) says this:

"I've brought you here, You're in my circular parade of failure...Run away!"

That song had such a hopeless desperation.

I think in stories. We've established this. In that one line I heard his story and it looked like that kid trying to climb the wall.

We fail. We panic and throw ourselves into trying again. We fail.

Now, it needs to be clarified that I don't use the word fail lightly. I don't mean I got a C in class, or lost my keys.

I mean failing God. Because when that happens I let down a lot of my family and friends on top of God. Epic fail.

I have found that when I mess up, when I fail God, I recoil. I get upset. I get panicky and resolute against doing it again then I fail in the same way, quickly. What gives?

What are we left to do?

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." -Hebrews 12:1-2

Lay aside.

Remember Newton. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

When we panic and fling things away, they bounce back.

In life its the same way. If we panic and act on the emotion of guilt and shame, then the same problem will sneak its way back.

We lay it aside. We take a minute to surrender, not fling. Give it over to God and run with Him.

But anyone who has walked with Jesus for any stretch of time will tell you, we walk with Him and we still fail. We're still going to have certain things that grab us and pull us toward failure. Temptation. Struggles. Crutches. We going to feel the burn of failure. And yet He is going to still be with us, ready to take it from us when we surrender and cover us in grace to restore our hearts.

Thanks God.

Just remember - don't panic.

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." -James 1:2-4

"Be still and now that I am God." -Psalm 46:10