Using Failure as a Catalyst for Growth
In the beginning of strength training, I took a test to gauge my level of strength. Nervously, I told my trainer, whom I had known all of a few minutes, that I didn’t want to fail. I was told that was actually the point of the test: do it until failure to determine my strength.
I found that in strength training, failure can be a catalyst for growth. It’s in the process of stressing your muscles that they are pushed toward growth. And it’s during the recovery phase that stronger muscles are built.
Isn’t it so with our faith too? When our faith is tested, it is put through trials and fires that cause us to wonder and doubt our faith and our own experiences. There, in the weakness of our failures, we are brought to a place of recovery where we find Jesus to be our strength and our hope.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV
The world mocks failure and humiliates those who fail. Is failure a time to point a finger and mock others? Or is it time to stand in the GAP and lift others up into who they are called to be? What is our role when others fail around us? Is it to offer correction, grace and discipleship? Is it to warn others? At what stage do we hold others accountable for their actions and subsequent failures and at what point do we reveal others weaknesses?
