Seeking Success? Avoiding Failure? Where Is Your Focus?

From time to time we are honored to have a guest post on our blog. Today we are privileged to hear from Mr. Jim Neigh, CEF Vice President of International Ministries. Recently, Jim wrote an article for IM’s publication, ILink, that we thought would be an encouragement to you. We all deal with feelings of failure at times in our ministry, but how we deal with failure is often a matter of perspective. Following is Jim’s article on this subject, used with his permission.

A few years ago I came across a book by motivational speaker and writer John C. Maxwell titled Failing Forward (Thomas Nelson Publications). I highly recommend it for your reading (and your library). Reading the book started me thinking about how failure affects our lives and the ministry of CEF. The book caused me to ask myself questions like: How do I perceive failure? How do I respond to failure? Is failure inevitable? Do I allow failure to negatively affect future action? If I were to ask you those questions, how would you answer?

Someone once said that success is 99 percent failure. J. Wallace Hamilton said, "People are training for success when they should be training for failure. Failure is far more common than success." It is important that we be trained and equipped to be successful in ministry, and we need to be putting such training into action. But when one comes back to Mr. Hamilton's words "Failure is far more common than success" one realizes that we are too often ill equipped to deal with failure in our lives and ministry. That includes personal failure and failure in the lives of those we know and those with whom we serve.

How do you perceive failure? How do you respond to failure? Are you learning from it and getting on with your life and ministry? Or do you let it get you down and keep you from doing ministry as effectively as you could? Let me share a thought from Donald Luce in his book Time-Out Leadership (Thomas Nelson Publications).

"Are you dedicating your energies in the pursuit of success, or are you spending your energies trying to avoid failure? No one likes to fail. The disappointment and embarrassment can be debilitating for many, especially for those with big egos.

"How do you get over the failure complex then? Start by seeing each failure as an opportunity to learn. If you succeeded in everything you did on the very first attempt, you would have no basis for what success feels or looks like. You acquire new skills only by understanding the dynamics of why they work. That usually happens when you grasp the consequences of not applying the skill. When you get it wrong, you have the opportunity to evaluate what you can do to be better the next time. You get the chance to improve on your style or design. Celebrate failure. Through it you will understand success."

Think of men in the Bible who could have been considered failures: Abraham, Moses, David, Peter and many others. But they were not failures. They failed, learned from their failure and went on to be used mightily of God for His purposes!

The idea of using failure as a stepping stone to more effective ministry has been in the minds of leaders throughout the ages. Here are some short quotes. Read them slowly and think about the impact each statement can have in your life.

• "When we give ourselves permission to fail, we at the same time give ourselves permission to excel." - Musicologist Eloise Ristad

• "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." - Thomas Alva Edison

• "Failing doesn't make us failures. It makes us experienced. Failing should never be used as a means to disqualify." - Author unknown

• "What you have to tell yourself is, 'I'm not a failure; I failed at doing something.'" - Author Erma Bombeck

• "Teachability is an attitude, a mind-set that says, 'No matter how much I know (or think I know), I can learn from this situation.'" - Author unknown

• "Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ, and go out into the irresistible future with Him. Never let the sense of failure corrupt your new action." - Oswald Chambers

Consider these thoughts before the Lord in the light of Ephesians 3:20, then determine to "fail forward" to His glory and for the sake of the children!