This is considered to be the greatest story ever told. But one could say that it is really a story about failure. That is, Jesus spends three years trying to teach people about God’s love . . . and he ends up agonizing over it, suffering for it and dying for it. By many accounts he failed.
Now, not that failure is necessarily a bad thing. [Reveal hand weights and begin doing curls].
The purpose of lifting weights is to get to the point of failure, when you can’t lift anymore. That is the point when muscles start growing.
People who achieve great feats, no matter what field, understand that failure is not a stumbling block but a stepping-stone on the road to success. There is no success without risk and failure.
Most breakthroughs of science, have occurred only AFTER many failed experiments or trials.
Most great cooks, reveal that the secret to their good dishes, is having tried many other ones that weren’t so good. Most Olympians know that falling on their behinds thousands of times is where great accomplishments come from.
Yet too often, our fear of failing seeks us from reaching our potential. The famed psychologist Abraham Maslow, did a study of self-actualizing people. He noted that “the most important lessons, which forced change in the life-outlook of these people and consequently in everything that they did . . . were tragedies, deaths, and trauma.”
Here’s are two questions for you to ponder this Holy Week,
What do you most fear right now in your life?
If you knew that the end result would be OK, what “thing” in your life would you change,
or do better?
Now, lots of studies and books have been written on the lessons from failures. I like the quote that says, “Learn to fail, or fail to learn.”
But most of these are missing one huge component . . . the God factor. God intends good things for each of us. They will not simply be handed to us on a silver platter. We need to keep trying and growing and pushing ourselves . . . but the story NEVER ends on the cross. The story never ends with sadness.
That’s what this whole week is about. So I invite to attend all our liturgies: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday or Easter Morning. Come and discover what God has planned for you this year.