STATION 11: THE GOSPEL OF FAILUREMost of you know that the word "gospel" means good news, thus the title of this station would be translated, "the good news of failure." How can failure possibly be good news? The Christian Gospel is quite clear that failure, like being alone is okay. We base almost all of our self worth upon our achievements. When you go to any meeting of a social group, after the original exchange of names, people usually will find ask one of two things. Number 1, "Where do you work or what is your job?" If that person doesn't get a satisfactory enough answer to that question, he asks, "Are you going to school?" You only get asked the second question if the inquirer was not sufficiently impressed with your job. We want to make sure that we have a lot of money, and we measure ourselves against other people on the basis of our income, by how much money we have in the bank, the size of our home, how liquid we are, what kind of car we drive. All of these things add up to being much of who and what we are. We add to that our accomplishments. I won a Superbowl; I created a new invention; I composed a symphony; I helped build a bridge; I'm the President of the United States. And, we imagine that these accomplishments mean something. Ultimately, of course, they mean nothing, and if we are wise in the spirit, we will see that these kind of small secular materialistic accomplishments are ultimately fruitless. There is something more. We can try to accomplish things for the good of others, for the good of society. We are actually capable of selflessness. We are capable of trying to raise our children just for our children's sake. We are capable of trying to operate a soup kitchen simply because we want to help feed people. We can try teaching and talking and ministering to simply enable people to have a better life. But in all of these things, whether we are attempting to acquire wealth or increase our pleasure or serve humanity, there is always the possibility and the likelihood of failure. I have seen many people's lives destroyed through failure. They reach a certain level of achievement, usually in the business world, achieve a certain income level and surround themselves with the tricks and toys of success--the big house, the big car, the big important spending accounts, and then through the slings and arrows of fortune, find themselves cast aside. The money stops flowing in. They lose the house. They declare bankruptcy. They have to get a smaller, older car. Many of these people enter states of great lengthy depression, as though they have lost some important part of their identity. This is tragic. One of the things which the Bible tells us so clearly is that we are saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves it is the gift of God. If we translate that into the 20th century, it comes out something like there is not job you can do, there is no accomplishment you can have. There is no failure you can undergo to make you any more or less worthy of God's love. To the extent that we attach ourselves and our self worth to our external material objects and to our accomplishments, we fail to be at the core of life. We fail to understand deeply who and what we are. But failure can be a gospel. Failure can be good news. Failure can be the beginning of a brand new adventure. Christ's Passion is about the Gospel of Failure. Jesus was, from an earthly perspective, a failure. He tried to get people to understand the Kingdom of God. He tried to enable people to overcome their sin, to repent, to seek for God's righteousness. He tried to get people to lead new lives, alive to God, to knock on the door of Heaven, and to seek and discover all truths. He tried to enable His disciples to understand who He was. He failed. From one perspective, Jesus was a complete failure. His message was not received. The people turned against Him. The disciples, after three years of intensive study, did not understand one word He meant. This is obvious, because they were still arguing among themselves, even at the final Passover, as to was going to get the seat of greatest authority. He tried to teach people peace and love, and they responded only with war, violence, and hate. And, He died a complete and utter failure. His ministry was broken. He had lost relationship with all of His people, and all that He could see was failure. This failure, however, is never the end of the story, just as being alone is never the end of the story. Just as death is never the end of the story, so too, failing is never the end of the story, because there is always new life. There are always new opportunities. After you leave your current business, there are new horizons. After you have had your ministry torn from you, despite your best efforts, there are new opportunities. When you lose your home because of financial difficulties, there are new places to live. When Jesus died upon that cross, it was not the end. No, it was just the beginning. The Gospel of Failure is such that you need not be afraid to fail, because even if you do at this particular time, there is always another opportunity for success just around the corner. One thing which motivational speakers try to get people to do is live their lives and take actions as though they could not fail. What would you do with your life if you knew that whatsoever you sought, you would succeed at? What would you do? Would you run for political office? Would you compose a symphony? Would you become a world evangelist? Would you become a doctor and find the cure for cancer? What would you do? The Gospel of Failure is that no matter how dark it looks, sunrise can never be more than a few hours away. Even in the darkest place on the Earth, the North Pole with its 6 months of darkness, daylight is only a few months away. There is always resurrection. As long as there is life, there is always hope. There is always opportunity. And, life is eternal. Life does not die. The Gospel of Failure can empower you to overcome your fears, and to not take upon yourself the castigation which we so often do by blaming yourself for your failure. Jesus was the incarnate Son of God, but the people did not understand His message. They did not accept His ministry. His friends turned on Him and He died, from an earthly perspective, an absolute total abject disaster. If He was an earthly pastor, we would have to give Him an "F-." But, He knew that it was not His responsibility. You see one of the most powerful ideas in the world is the notion as it says in the Bible that whatsoever we do in thought, word or deed, do all to the glory of God. Now what does that mean? What practical use is that? How do we actually put that into our lives? We do what we do because we think it is the right thing, because it is what we are called to do, because it is God's will. That is what that verse is saying. To put it into different words, we should work without attachment to the fruit of our labors. We shouldn't be so connected or so concerned with the results. If our actions are good and our actions are right, then from that perspective we are a success, period, regardless of what comes about from our actions. You see, we cannot control how people react to us. Every human being has free will. Sometimes people will like us; sometimes they won't. Even if we are absolutely perfect, even if we are pure love, even if our motivations are entirely perfect, even if we are the Son of God himself, that does not mean that good results are going to come about from our actions. People may not like us. People may feel threatened by us. People may reject us. Just like cockroaches scurrying into the night, very often we as human beings prefer the darkness to the light. The Bible itself tells you this. So, the Gospel of Failure acknowledges that it is not a question of what results your actions take. Jesus did not go to the Cross thinking that His entire life had been a waste. There's no indication of that whatsoever. In fact, the exact opposite is true. Look at His final high priestly prayer in the Gospel of John in the last chapters where He is praying just before He is arrested. He is saying that He did what was right, He made the Father's Name known to the disciples. He did what was good and thanked God for the opportunity. He prayed that God would strengthen His efforts. The fact that His disciples were about to abandon Him, the fact that they really didn't understand anything about who He was or what He was doing, the fact that the multitudes were about to reject Him, and the fact that the state was going to execute Him for crimes against humanity did not matter. The good news of failure is that as long as our motives are pure and we are doing what is right, then the doing of that righteousness is enough. That is all that matters. It is not simply because we will eventually get the righteous rewards. No, doing good is itself enough. Being good is enough. There will always be resurrection. God has many things planned for us in the rest of eternity. We must disassociate ourselves from constantly thinking that we are the sum total of our material possessions. We must disassociate ourselves from thinking that we are our accomplishments. We must disassociate ourselves from thinking that we are a bad person because certain projects or activities do not have a anticipated or hoped for or desired result. We must do everything in thought, word, and deed to the glory of God. We must work and do and think and be, without concern for the results. You see, results can be a very tricky thing. Just because something is popular or successful, doesn't mean that it's good. Adolph Hitler was a very popular, highly successful person. That does not mean that he was good or he was right. On the other extreme, Jesus was a very unpopular, unsuccessful
person, but that does not mean that He is wrong. This is what the
death and resurrection of Jesus teaches us. The Gospel of
Failure. |
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