Why Failure is an Option
Success at work: that's our goal, right? We strive to succeed every day. Imagine if we went to the boss and said we were happy that we failed at our assigned project. Unimaginable! We even have a phrase to express this: Failure is not an option!
Perhaps you think of your efforts to grow your small business: you seek success here, don't you? You don't tackle each day's work thinking of failure do you?
And yet failure comes as surely, sometimes even more surely, than success. No one of us is perfect, few of us tie together long, unbroken strings of successful effort. Indeed we hear that we ought not be afraid of failure. Fear of failure can cause us to be frozen in place, never putting forth the free, unhindered, energetic effort it takes to succeed in the end.
And yet, as Catholics, we need to dig deeper than this understanding of failure. This week, we connect our recent discussion of sacrifice with the reason for our work - indeed our very existence - in this world.
For example, we may say we work for the greater glory of God, but it can be frustrating when we fail at our work, even more frustrating when we try to do His will - or at least what we believe to be His will - and we fail. After all, we're the Church Militant. We are each soldiers in Christ's army. We set out each day to conquer the world for Him. And as good soldiers, we seek victory, don't we?
But we have to tread carefully here, lest we let this image lead us astray. God's ways are not our ways. The triumph of the Cross should make that clear to us. It was in death, not leading a conquering army, that our Lord saved the world from sin, that he conquered Satan and the evil grip he had on the world and each one of us. Understanding this is absolutely central of our Faith. We can't afford to lose sight of this.
And so now we'll see why it may very well be in our very failure that we are, in the end, doing more for God than we might have had we succeeded - at least succeed in the way we imagined. This is important for us to understand.
To understand this at its deepest level, let's turn to the spiritual writings of Archbishop Alban Goodier, S.J. Again, as we often recommend, read his words slowly and carefully. In this case, he's opening a door to the supernatural reason - God's reason - for failure. He explains why even those who might look to us as failures in life may in the end be the ones closest to God. We start with a fundamental belief taught to us by Jesus Christ Himself:
Next time, we'll see why we not only ought not to fear failure, but perhaps embrace it as one of God's greatest gifts to us.
Perhaps you think of your efforts to grow your small business: you seek success here, don't you? You don't tackle each day's work thinking of failure do you?
And yet failure comes as surely, sometimes even more surely, than success. No one of us is perfect, few of us tie together long, unbroken strings of successful effort. Indeed we hear that we ought not be afraid of failure. Fear of failure can cause us to be frozen in place, never putting forth the free, unhindered, energetic effort it takes to succeed in the end.
And yet, as Catholics, we need to dig deeper than this understanding of failure. This week, we connect our recent discussion of sacrifice with the reason for our work - indeed our very existence - in this world.
For example, we may say we work for the greater glory of God, but it can be frustrating when we fail at our work, even more frustrating when we try to do His will - or at least what we believe to be His will - and we fail. After all, we're the Church Militant. We are each soldiers in Christ's army. We set out each day to conquer the world for Him. And as good soldiers, we seek victory, don't we?
But we have to tread carefully here, lest we let this image lead us astray. God's ways are not our ways. The triumph of the Cross should make that clear to us. It was in death, not leading a conquering army, that our Lord saved the world from sin, that he conquered Satan and the evil grip he had on the world and each one of us. Understanding this is absolutely central of our Faith. We can't afford to lose sight of this.
And so now we'll see why it may very well be in our very failure that we are, in the end, doing more for God than we might have had we succeeded - at least succeed in the way we imagined. This is important for us to understand.
To understand this at its deepest level, let's turn to the spiritual writings of Archbishop Alban Goodier, S.J. Again, as we often recommend, read his words slowly and carefully. In this case, he's opening a door to the supernatural reason - God's reason - for failure. He explains why even those who might look to us as failures in life may in the end be the ones closest to God. We start with a fundamental belief taught to us by Jesus Christ Himself:
"'The Kingdom of God is within you.' - Does this not emphatically declare that for each individual soul the conquest of the world for Jesus Christ, first and foremost, and for many perhaps entirely, in the conquest of one's own self? As each star is a world in itself, so is each individual soul a kingdom in itself, and that little kingdom is the only one which it can thoroughly conquer; when it has done that, it has done its chief part in the conquest in the rest of mankind."To see our lives and the world in a purely natural light can easily lead us away from God. We can be caught up in the quest for success so easily, and put so much weight on our material success in this world. In the same way we can focus on visible accomplishments in our desire to work for the greater glory of God. We take our satisfaction from what appear to be good deeds like generously supporting our families, helping our neighbor in need, being active in parish life, joining Catholic organizations, or other charitable organizations, etc. But Archbishop Goodier here reminds us to raise our eyes from this world and look at things in a supernatural light - in the holy light that Our Lord Himself brings into this world, as we repeat each Sunday in the Credo: "God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God..."
Next time, we'll see why we not only ought not to fear failure, but perhaps embrace it as one of God's greatest gifts to us.
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