Familiar with Failure

Many years ago, a young man came to see me and said: “I am not making a success of my life spiritually. I want with all my heart to become a successful Christian, but I seem to be failing in everything I do.” At that time I was not as aware of the subtleties of the human heart as I am today, and I encouraged him to keep trying. I said, “Responsible effort and dogged obedience will bring you what you need; keep going no matter what.” The advice I gave him was good, but it was not complete.

About a year later, after God had allowed me to see the subtleties and deceptions of my own heart, and after putting some personal things right before Him myself, I sat down once again with the young man and asked him how things were going. “A little better,” he said, “but even though I keep asking God to help me become a successful Christian, I am still failing.”

I took a deep breath and tentatively suggested that perhaps, deep down in his heart, he preferred failure to success. He looked at me in amazement and after a few seconds said, “Say some more about that. I feel you are touching something very vulnerable inside me.”

We talked for hours, and he told me how all his life he had lived with failure, and it soon became obvious that he preferred the familiar feelings of failure to the unfamiliar feelings of success—even spiritual success. This one insight was all he needed to open up the whole of his being to God.

Further Study

Ex 16:1-3; Nm 11:1-6; 13:17-33

What was the problem of the children of Israel?

Why were they not prepared to move forward?