Failing To Fail

So each year Lake Superior State University releases and banned word list. One of this year’s banned words was “Fail.” I know it’s become a popular term in youth/pop culture and over used, but simply put if no one fails at anything, then no one actually succeeds.

Today I had a couple epic failures, I miscalculated the weight capacity of a giant bean bag chair and instructed 3 adults(myself included) to drop down at once. Suddenly our den floor was covered in literally thousands of foam balls. This was after Danyelle had just spent the whole morning cleaning that room, and I was on the verge of walking out the door. Fail.

 Later I was walking on the shore at Myrtle beach, there was about an 18 inch drop off in the sand, we were climbing back up to head to the car, in the middle of a conversation. I stepped, my foot went straight through the sand and I slammed my thigh, ribs, and chest on a rock hard slab of cold sand. It knocked the wind out of me and left me sore, and I crumbled like a dead halo spartan. One of my friends laughed their head off so hard she couldn’t breathe, the other was concerned I had died.  Regardless I failed.

These are minor failures, barely even worth mentioning, but if we ignore the small fails, we will ignore the big ones. I’ve failed big time. I’ve broken my word, lied, hurt people I cared about, been less than the man I know I am, I’ve bitten off more than I could chew, openly rejected people, cared less than i should have, not been as faithful as i know i should be, been selfish, been to quiet when i needed to shout from the rooftops, been too loud when i needed to shut up, loved the wrong things, failed to love the truth, failed to plan ahead, planned ahead and executed poorly, and just outright failed a lot. The areas I fail in had really been some of the biggest weak and destructive points in my life. It’s so easy when you get knocked down(even if it’s your own fault) just to stay down. People’s pride prevents them from admitting failure, they feel like admitting the fact they are fallible means they are less of a person. To quote Elizabethtown, “Failure is simply the absence of success.”  When we admit our failures it means we can’t dwell on them, even better when we admit our failures we can learn from them. We learn what not to do the next time, we gain the experience to help other’s prevent themselves from failing equally. Most of my messages, or advice to people consists of (at least in part) my own failures, and what God has taught me from them. Over all I’m just feeling the fact that if we aren’t honest with ourselves when we fail, the we will continue to fail.



“think that failure has a purpose, and I don't believe it's chance if I fall. And I know that if I ever do fall, he will catch me. And if he ever lets me fall down, for the good of those who believe him, He will make me into a cannonball” - Five Iron Frenzy

2 Corinthians 12:⁹ 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. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

“I'm telling you, the best thing that could happen to anybody in this room, the best thing, is that your sin would be literally exposed on the 5 o'clock news. Your deepest darkest most embarrassing sin; the one you work the hardest to hide, would be broadcast on the 5 o'clock news. Best thing to happen to you, best thing that would ever happen to me. Because I am so weary, I am so tired of hiding my sin from people. Of deceiving people at who I really am, I'm tired of it. I just wish my sins would just be exposed, I wish there were huge screens that would just show you the truth about me, all the way down to my core. In order that you would know me for who I really was, in order that I could not, I didn't even have the option to hide from you anymore; in order that I would have nothing but Jesus to grasp onto. Because that's all I've got anyway, because the truth is, your sins have been exposed as if they were on the 5 o'clock news; they've been exposed to Jesus. He knows you better than you're willing to even admit to yourself. But He's forgiven you. Take joy in the fact not that your sins are not real; but that they are real and that your Savior is real.” – Derek Webb