failure

Fear of Success

/ JJS / 2 Comments

MuchRequired

Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 103; 150, Numbers 6:22-27, Acts 13:1-12, Luke 12:41-48

“Fear of success” doesn’t sound like something that should happen, but it’s a common psychological challenge. Success represents change, and there are numerous reasons we consciously and subconsciously fear change. In many ways failure can be less fearful because it means remaining in familiar territory.

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus touches on what it means to succeed: “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”

Does that kindle a little fear in your heart?

When we do well personally and professionally, we say we have been blessed. While that’s true, we also need to realize we have been burdened. Though it’s cliched, we need to ask ourselves whether we are paying it forward. The motto of the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) is: “Lifting as We Climb.” This organization focuses its efforts on a specific community and profession, but  it embodies the responsibilities that come with success.

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a wealth of money, time, or talent, but we must not get caught in the trap of thinking what we have earned is what we deserve. No matter how much success we earn, we fall short of “deserving” God’s love and mercy, yet God gives them to us freely. If Christ is our example, and he gave up his life for the salvation of our undeserving souls, how can we claim the right to hold on to anything we’ve earned? How can we look down on those who have not “earned” what we hold but they need?

Personal accountability is not something we impose on strangers (though we should expect and encourage it), but a standard to which we hold ourselves. It’s not measured by what we’ve socked away for retirement, but by how proportionately we’ve used what’s been given and entrusted to us to meet the requirements and demands of faithful service.

Success means change. If that change happens, and much is demanded of us, will we be more afraid of being broke or being broken?

Comfort: How you account for your generosity is between you and God.

Challenge: “Responsibility” can become an excuse for mean-spiritedness. When you are deciding whether to give time, money, or talent to those in need, consider what it says about your character as least as much as you consider theirs.

Prayer: God of mercy, teach me to use my gifts wisely and generously.

Discussion: How do you arrive at a balance between generosity and practicality? How concerned do you think Jesus is with the practical?

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Fail to Succeed

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 5; 145, Proverbs 27:1-6, 10-12, Philippians 2:1-13, John 18:15-18, 25-27

Bodybuilders know the secret to success is failure. A muscle grows bigger and stronger only when it is worked until it fails. They reach for more than they know they can do, because they know the reward will be a stronger body. Every successful workout teaches them the limit of their strength.

Most of us are not experts at judging our own limits, physical or spiritual. When pressed we overestimate or underestimate our abilities. Many people who have gone through a crisis with a parent or child have said: “I didn’t know I could do it until I had to!”

Peter didn’t understand his own limits. Shortly before his crucifixion, Jesus predicted Peter would deny him three times. Of course Peter insisted he would never deny Jesus, but once the rubber hit the road Peter’s fear was greater than his faith. We can shake our heads at Peter, and insist just as hard as he did that we would not have been so faithless, but the truth is we don’t know. We have the advantage of knowing how it all turns out, but for Peter and the other disciples, Jesus’s death brought terror and confusion.

And yet … Jesus also predicted Peter would be the rock upon which he built his church. Jesus didn’t pick someone with a perfect faith, because that someone doesn’t exist. Later when Jesus appeared to the disciples after his resurrection, he asked Peter three times: “Do you love me?” For each failure, Jesus offered an opportunity for redemption.

Attempting only what we know is possible is not faith, it is fear. To grow our faith, we must be willing to test its limits – to trust God to carry us through things we don’t think we can do. When things don’t work out, remember Peter.

God knows we will fail. He can use each of those failures to make us better: more humble, more compassionate, less judgmental. We may need some recovery time – bodybuilders typically wait 24-48 hours before working the same muscles again – but after we recover we know our faith is stronger than it was before.

Comfort: Failure is always an option. Through God, so is redemption.

Challenge: Pick something you’ve been afraid to try, and trust God to see you through it. Even if you fail at it, God will be with you to dust you off.

Prayer: Thank you, O Lord, for the challenges which strengthen me. Amen.

Discussion: Have you ever been stronger than you thought you could be? If so, what or whom do you credit?

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Failure is Not an Option

/ JJS / 4 Comments

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 96; 147:1-11, Deuteronomy 31:30-32:14, 2 Corinthians 11:21b-33, Luke 19:11-27

In the parable of the ten minas (a unit of currency worth about four months’ wages), Jesus tells the story of a wealthy land owner who entrusts one mina each to ten servants before he traveled abroad to have himself appointed king (an unpopular idea among his subjects). Upon his triumphant return, the newly appointed king summoned his servants to find out how they had handled his money. The first one had earned a tenfold return, the second a fivefold return, and the third had buried it and returned it without increase. The king gave the first servant ten cities, the second five cities, and took the mina away from the third to give it to the first.

This parable was about how Jesus’s followers should invest their time and talents while they waited for the eventual arrival of the Kingdom. We hear about the results of three servants, but what of the other seven? Specifically, what do we think would have happened to a servant who made an honest effort to increase his or her mina but lost it all? The king says that those who have nothing will lose even more … but is he talking about money? After all, this is a parable about faith.

We might find a clue in the master’s response: “I will judge you by your own words.” If we, like the third servant, live timidly because we believe in a tyrannical, petty God, that is the God we will experience. But if we trust God and the gifts given us, and use them boldly, we will find they increase. And in the event of failure, we must continue to trust. Trust approaches failure like a comma that gives us pause to gather our thoughts, rather than a period that completes our sentence. Trust in God means failure, even unto death, is never the final state.

Let’s make confident, risky investments of the gifts God has entrusted to us. We will inevitably experience failures, but if we are to be judged by our own words, let us speak of a merciful, loving Lord.

Comfort: Faith in action is faith multiplied.

Challenge: On scraps of paper, write down things you are afraid to do, but think you should. Put them in a bowl, mix them up, and commit to doing the one you pull out at random.

Prayer: My Lord and Savior, I will trust you with all my mind, heart, and soul. Amen.

Discussion: What fears stop you from doing the things you want to?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group. You’ll be notified of new posts through FB, and have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!