The Pastor’s Pen

By Steven Temple

 

To many of you, you were drawn to this article just because of the title. You can summarize your life with that sentence, life of failure. After all, the world that we live in teaches us to accept that many times. In a society where so much emphasis is placed on success many of us have not learned how to deal with failures when they come to our lives.

Our country is overwhelmed with addiction. Some of it is legal addiction with prescriptions for depression handed out without reservation. All brought on, the majority of the time, by the desire to succeed only to utterly fail time after time. But what about the response to failure? Many of us have been scolded for attempting to find success in our lives, in our businesses, in our families, and so forth. We have replaced the adage of “try and try again” with “it isn’t worth it”.

When did the clock strike a time where we no longer dusted our laps in defeat and rose to keep fighting? The emphasis is so great and the pressure is so overwhelming to succeed in every area of our lives. We put great weight on our performance of this and when we did not succeed we fall victim to not putting forth the effort again. I do not know if this has become some learned ideology over the years or if it is brought on by overnight success stories that we seem to be so attracted to.

With the reach of social media we can scroll through different outlets and see this one or that one that has become a star or millionaire overnight. Whether it is from creating a brand, an idea, making a funny video, telling a story, or even those that get lucky and hit the jackpot on the latest lotto. But we seem to not look at all of the prior failures of those that have become successful. We only focus on the success that is in front of us. We are only catching a glimpse of the iceberg that they have gone through or dealt with to come to the place they are now.

I know many of us will never see a bank account that gives us a thumbs up on not having to worry about work tomorrow. Many of us will never get just the right amount of viewers on our social media to create a great following with a great income. Many of us will never be on the cover of Fortune Magazine for our latest investment win. But we will all one day, rich or poor, famous or not, stand before a just judgment of our lives.

This is why it is important for us to deal with the failures in our lives. To learn that even though we are going to fall, we are going to come up short, we are going to have let downs, we must learn how to not stay down. The success of the enemy only comes when we decide to lay down instead of dusting ourselves off and getting back up. The Bible teaches us in Proverbs 24:16 that even if we fall seven times we must get back up again. The difference in failure and success is whether you get up or stay down. You will, in some instances, experience disaster in your life. Your response determines whether you build again or remain in the rubble of the storm.

No one likes to fail. No one likes to lose. Sometimes after suffering defeat so many times we come to the decision that we are tired and no longer want to compete. We hang our heads and give up. We can not allow this to happen to our spirit. The Lord knew we would suffer defeat, that we would slip up, that we would fail, yet, He still, even knowing this, took that cross on His shoulders and carried it up Calvary’s hill anyway. There is always hope if you never give up. Don’t let the failures of this life dictate your worth or your effort. You fall. You get back up. You fall. You get back up. Keep getting up for victory is just ahead. If you give up you will never see it come to pass. Without failure how will you ever know you have succeeded? Victory is sweet for those that overcome defeat!

 

Rev. Steven Temple is the Pastor of The Church on the Hill in Rose Hill, VA and welcomes you to come visit. Services times are as follows: Sunday morning Bible Study at 10am, Sunday service at 11am, and Wednesday evenings at 7pm. The church is located at 681 Highpoint Road, Rose Hill, VA.