Wednesday, August 12, 2020
Freedom to Fail
Author Chris Heuertz offers a reflection on failure:
“If we’re not failing once in a while–or for some of us, all the time–odds are good that we’re not living a life that presses us into the possibilities and risks necessary to grow into the possibilities and risks necessary to grow into the people we want to become. If we haven’t failed, we won’t know how to handle someone else’s failure, making us harder to be trusted during some of the most fragile and vulnerable periods in people’s lives. To be in community, you must be authentically human. Being authentically human means you will fail.” page 7
Failure hurts. I don’t think anyone truly wants to fail at something. We are hard-wired by God to try things, and in trying things, failure is inevitable. Everything we do cannot succeed, which is why it is so important for us to learn how to accept our own failures to continue trying other things. If we cannot extend ourselves grace for our own failures, we most certainly won’t be able to extend grace to others in their failures.
The freedom that is found in the saving grace of Jesus Christ is not a permission slip for sin. But it does empower us to accept ourselves in spite of our sin and failures, and move forward by taking the necessary risks for God’s kingdom to grow and flourish. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5
This week’s devotional reflections have been drawn from the book, Unexpected Gifts: Discovering the Way of Community by Christopher Heuertz. Howard Books, New York City. 2013.
Freedom to Fail
Author Chris Heuertz offers a reflection on failure:
“If we’re not failing once in a while–or for some of us, all the time–odds are good that we’re not living a life that presses us into the possibilities and risks necessary to grow into the possibilities and risks necessary to grow into the people we want to become. If we haven’t failed, we won’t know how to handle someone else’s failure, making us harder to be trusted during some of the most fragile and vulnerable periods in people’s lives. To be in community, you must be authentically human. Being authentically human means you will fail.” page 7
Failure hurts. I don’t think anyone truly wants to fail at something. We are hard-wired by God to try things, and in trying things, failure is inevitable. Everything we do cannot succeed, which is why it is so important for us to learn how to accept our own failures to continue trying other things. If we cannot extend ourselves grace for our own failures, we most certainly won’t be able to extend grace to others in their failures.
The freedom that is found in the saving grace of Jesus Christ is not a permission slip for sin. But it does empower us to accept ourselves in spite of our sin and failures, and move forward by taking the necessary risks for God’s kingdom to grow and flourish. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5
This week’s devotional reflections have been drawn from the book, Unexpected Gifts: Discovering the Way of Community by Christopher Heuertz. Howard Books, New York City. 2013.
