Failure

Failure

He Succeeded through Failure
Christopher Columbus was obsessed with the idea that he could get to the East by traveling west, but by sailing west he never did reach India. He failed, but changed the course of history by discovering America, a great achievement. If you set out to do something great enough, what you do incidentally may be of more significance than that which is accomplished on purpose by someone else.

Don't Give Up
An elderly lady was once asked by a young man who had grown weary in the fight, whether he ought to give up the struggle. "I am beaten every time," he said dolefully. "I feel I must give up." "Did you ever notice," she replied, smiling into the troubled face before her, "that when the Lord told the discouraged fishermen to cast their nets again, it was right in the same old spot where they had been fishing all night and had caught nothing?"

Belief That You Can Do It Does It!
When Rear Admiral Du Pont explained to his superior officer, Farragut, why he had failed to take his ships into Charleston Harbor, Farragut heard him through to the end and then said, "Admiral, there is one explanation which you haven't given."
"What is that?" asked Du Pont.
"This: you didn't believe that you could do it."
That lack of confidence has been the secret of failures not only in the field of war but also in this greater warfare of the soul.

Failure Not Final
Phillips Brooks became a teacher in Boston Latin School, a position for which he seemed preeminently qualified. He lasted only a few months. His headmaster commented that Phillips "had in him no single element of a successful school teacher" and set Phillips packing with the conclusion that he had never known a man who failed as a schoolmaster to succeed in any other occupation. He had failed at the age of 20. Phillips Brooks overcame that failure, however, to become one of the finest pulpiteers in all of American history. No failure need be final.

Motivation from Failure
Frank Laubach learned to live above his failure. At 45, missionary Frank Laubach was a theological seminary professor in the Philippines. He was next in line for president of the seminary. However, the board selected someone else. Laubach took off for the hills to sulk. He was angry about the unfairness of life and God's seeming lack of justice. He was a failure in his own eyes.
Was that the end of his story? Not on your life. Frank developed in his solitude a technique for teaching hundreds of millions of people throughout the world to read for the first time. He became the father of the modern literacy movement. A failure, Frank Laubach learned to live above that failure, and on that new level, he found how to achieve excellence.

Grace Before Greatness
A talented, young black girl made her debut at New York's Town Hall, but she was not ready for it. Consequently, the critics flailed her. She returned to Philadelphia in disgrace. Part of her early support had come from a special fund provided by members of her church. This "Fund for Marian Anderson's Future" had launched her career. Now she returned in failure.
Marian's embarrassment and depression lasted for more than a year. Through that time, her mother continued to encourage her. Finally, one of the motherly pep talks sank in. She told her daughter, "Marian, grace must come before greatness." Motivated by those words, Marian Anderson went on to a distinguished career during which she also helped many others discouraged by their first failures.

Don't Be Too Proud to Fail
Thomas A. Edison recorded 1,093 patents. Most of these inventions were impractical or unmarketable. They were failures. But a man who invented the phonograph, the mimeograph, and the electric light bulb could afford a lot of failures. He was so inept in business matters that he lost control of the profitable companies that he founded, and yet in the depths of the depression, he died with an estate of $2,000,000. Edison was a successful failure.
It is obvious that you learn as you fail. You also grow as you fail, but you must dare to fail. If you can fail enough, you will learn a lot; but if you are too proud to fail, then you will not enjoy success.

Stepping-Stones of Failure
Abraham Lincoln was considered by many Americans as a most successful president. It was strange that he was a man marked for failure, a man suffering from melancholia, who endured long periods of depression throughout his life. He could barely see out of one eye. He had frequent nervous attacks, severe headaches, indigestion and nausea. He had a couch placed near his desk in the White House so he could quickly lie down when one of his spells came over him. When Lincoln was 10 years old he was kicked in the head by a horse and experts now believe that the skull was severely fractured, leaving him with lifelong problems. When he came to deliver the now famous address at Gettysburg, he was coming down with smallpox.
Lincoln failed in business in 1831, was defeated for the legislature in 1832. The next year he suffered another business defeat and in 1836 had a nervous breakdown. He failed to be elected speaker in 1838, was defeated for elector in 1840, and for Congress in 1843, as well as in 1848. Lincoln failed to be elected to the Senate in 1855, and was defeated for the Vice Presidency in 1856 and for the Senate in 1858. However, being elected President in 1860, he could afford all those failures. Abraham Lincoln was truly a successful failure.
Some people are slow starters and may discover God's purpose late in life. Moses was 80 years old when he began his life's work. All that time God was preparing him to do one thing-lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. It could be that you are living to accomplish only one great task for God, and that all the rest of your life is merely preparation for that great heroic responsibility.

Paul-Successful Failure
Sometimes we are overwhelmed with failures because we are so aware of our own, but we fail to notice those of others. The athlete is not celebrated for the games he has lost; the photographer throws away his poor pictures; the potter reshapes his marred jars; and the painter displays only his best portraits.
Perhaps then, God has different measurements for failure and success than we do. Paul the Apostle was not acclaimed during his lifetime. He was rejected by Jews and held in suspicion by Gentiles. He was stoned, beaten, imprisoned, mocked by some, and ignored by others. He spent his life starting little churches that were soon overtaken with problems so big that the members needed revisiting and letters written to them to straighten out their difficulties. Paul taught the truth only to discover that some who received it on one day were turning the next day to some false doctrine. No glory crowned his life, nor was any success evident when, during his last days, his friends deserted him as he was held prisoner. In the end, he was shamefully executed.
Yet, looking back on the ministry of Paul, we see that he was indeed a successful failure. One-half of the books of the New Testament are from his pen, and he is now hailed as the greatest Christian missionary of all time!

Don't Quit After the First Failure
When the great Polish pianist, Ignace Paderewski, first chose to study the piano, his music teacher told him his hands were much too small to master the keyboard.
When the great Italian tenor, Enrico Caruso, first applied for instruction, the teacher told him his voice sounded like the wind whistling through the window.
When the great statesman of Victorian England, Benjamin Disraeli, attempted to speak in Parliament for the first time, members hissed him into silence and laughed when he said, "Though I sit down now, the time will come when you will hear of me."
Henry Ford forgot to put a reverse gear in his first car.
Albert Einstein failed his university entrance exams at his first attempt.
Thomas Edison spent $2,000,000 on an invention which proved to be of little value.
Very little comes out right the first time. Failures, repeated failures, are fingerprints on the road to achievement. Abraham Lincoln's life could demonstrate that the only time you do not fail is the last time you try something and it works. We can "fail forward" toward success. Who Has Not Failed?
The Apostle Paul failed; Peter failed; every one of the twelve apostles failed.
David, Israel's greatest king, "a man after God's own heart," failed.
Moses, giant among the Israelites, giver of the law, deliverer of his people, failed.
Jacob, father of Israel, failed; Isaac, son of promise, failed.
Abraham, progenitor of Israel, father of the faithful, prototype of those who are righteous through faith, failed.
Even our first parents, in their human perfection, failed.
Who has not failed?
It is not failing that is the problem; it is what one does after he has failed.
To take failure as final is to be a failure. To see in failure the school of the Spirit is to let failure contribute to one's growth in Christ.

Defeat Does Not Mean Failure
Booker T. Washington said, "Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed."
By taking two steps forward and one step back, we still continually move closer to the goal. A man who makes no mistakes is one who does nothing. Failure, disappointments, and setbacks are a part of life. We must learn not to identify with our failures.
There are many, many examples of people who overcame backward steps. Abraham Lincoln ran for political office seven times and was defeated each time. Bobby Kennedy failed third grade and could not even take care of his own paper route. Babe Ruth struck out more times than any other baseball player. Ed Gibson, one of the astronauts on the Skylab III mission, failed first and fourth grades.
Learn from your mistakes, but identify with your success. Press on, confident in your own ability to succeed, backed by the power of God. Never forget that people who accomplish great things believe they can do it. When All Else Fails, Read the Instructions
We are so good at doing things our own way. Then, when they do not work out, we turn to God and say, "Help! Now what do I do?" We are so foolish, for if we had read His instructions in the first place, we wouldn't have had the problem in the second place. "Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee." That's a powerful thought!