A young man was appointed president of a bank. Intimidated by his new responsibilities, he nervously sought the advice of his gray-haired predecessor:
Sir. What has been the secret of your success? The secret, young man, is two words: right decisions! replied the older man. But how do you make the right decisions? One word: experience. But how do you get experience? The old man smiled. Two words: wrong decisions.
We all make bad decisions. We all fail. We can deny that we fail, or run from it and even allow it to become a paralyzing fear or we can see failure as an important part of our success.
The difference between success and failure depends on how you look at it. Our culture has conditioned us to see success as a most desirable goal and failure as a terrible event. The reverse may actually be closer to the truth.
We make excuses or blame others for our failures and pretend to be successful when were not. There are some who believe they’re failures and others who believe they’ve never failed. Lets’ face it, we all fail.
Michael Jordan said,” I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On countless occasions, I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that’s precisely why I succeed.”
Although failure is not a requirement for success, it can be a stepping stone to deeper relationships with God and others. By God’s grace, we can learn how to fail successfully! God is a specialist in working out our failings into His purposes. We can learn a lot from our failings.
After thousands of failed experiments, Thomas Edison would say, “I have not failed. I have learned thousands of ways that won’t work.” It’s not so important that we fail, but that we learn from it.
Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I obey your word… It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decree. Psalm 119:67, 71
The Hebrew word for ‘afflicted’ refers to not only physical suffering but also to brokenness and failure. The psalmist makes it clear that failure can bring emotional and spiritual growth.
As a child, Moses was privately tutored in the Pharaoh’s palace with all its’ advantages. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. Moses had it all. He was handsome and had a great resume. When Moses spoke, people listened! His life is a case study of how God uses our failings.
When Moses became aware of his people’s oppression he thought he could deliver them by his own power (Acts 7:25). The Rambo Moses tried to emancipate the Hebrews by his own passionate will and might. Seeking justice in his own way he took matters into his own hands and took the life of an Egyptian (Ex.2:11-14) and he was in big-time trouble!
There are some observations from Moses’ failings that we all can learn from. The first observation is that no matter where we come from and despite what we may think…
No One Is Exempt from Suffering
Moses had not yet learned the distinction between passion and purpose and impulse and principle. He was sympathetic towards the plight of his people’s suffering and wanted their oppressor to feel his wrath. Yet, the response to his impulsive action was heard in the question by one of his own people, “Who made you ruler and judge over us?
Instead of Moses delivering and leading the Hebrews no one was listening or wanted to follow him, at least not yet. Moses was afraid, disappointed, and exhausted. He pushed his own way and ran from what he caused apart from God’s way and timing. Sound familiar?
For Moses, there was no deliverance, only failure. Moses learned the hardest of lessons that we also would do well to consider. The second observation:
Passionate self-will before knowing God’s way can lead us to disaster
May we learn not only this observation from the life of Moses, but so much more from his life in the next coming blog.
