Genesis 50:20 “Joseph said to his brothers, ‘You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done.’”
Bad experiences, as with Joseph, don’t have to define us – or more positively, they can be redeemed for God’s glory. Our most famous old boy at school was Winston Churchill. Once he was asked by a journalist in an interview what experience had best equipped him to deal with Hitler leading up to and during the Second World War. To the interviewer’s amazement, Churchill recalled the time he’d been forced to repeat a year at school.
“You mean you failed a year at school?”
“I never failed anything. I was given a second opportunity to get it right.”
As John Ortberg writes: “Failure is not an event, but rather a judgment about an event. Failure is not something that happens to us or a label we attach to things. It is a way we think about outcomes.”
Was Winston Churchill a failure? Or how about Hillary? Ortberg continues: “Sir Edmund Hillary made several unsuccessful attempts at scaling Mount Everest before he finally succeeded. After one attempt he stood at the base of the giant mountain and shook his fist at it. “I’ll defeat you yet,” he said in defiance. “Because you’re as big as you’re going to get – but I’m still growing.”
Every time Hillary climbed, he failed. And every time he failed, he learned. And every time he learned, he grew and tried again. And one day he didn’t fail.”
So we embrace the fact that progress in any sphere comes through repeated attempts – ‘failures’ – followed by renewed and modified approaches. Maybe for years you’ve defined yourself – or something you did – as a failure and God wants you to be released to reappraise that experience through a new lens today. Instead of seeing apparent failures as stumbling blocks, they can be transformed into stepping stones.
Lord, help me to transform former failures into victories for your glory. Amen!
Leave a Reply