The loss of the freedom to fail...

Something has been stirring in my mind lately. Like most of the things I am learning, this flows out of the collision between my own life experience and my study of the Scriptures; more specifically, coaching basketball and the book of Amos. The lesson? I think we’ve forgotten the good side of failure.

Coaching involves two very important tasks – teaching skills, and correcting poorly executed skills. The teaching comes pretty easy. The correcting not so much. 99% of the time I offer some sort of correction to a girl on our team they begin to explain to me why they did not do the skill incorrectly. "The other girl pushed me, the ball is poorly inflated, the referee was wrong.” It’s as if they can not acknowledge that they made a mistake.

I shouldn’t be surprised, I guess. Our culture has poured immense effort into making sure that no one feels bad about their abilities (or lack of abilities). The goal was noble, helping children not link their inherent value with their performance. While I can appreciate that, I think our methods have achieved just the opposite. Instead of being honest with them about their weaknesses and stressing that worth isn’t tied to success in a given area, we have just reframed weaknesses as strengths, developing an unhealthy over-assessment of our own abilities. Now we are afraid to say that we blew it because in our society nobody blows it. In trying to help people feel good about who they are, we’ve actually linked who they are with their ability to perform.

So what does this have to do with Amos? In Amos chapter 6 God reveals what is underneath all of Israel’s problems. They have placed their security in their own strength (6:1-3) which isn’t really that strong, or in their stuff (v.4-7) which will all be taken away, or in themselves (v.7-8). It all comes back to pride - thinking they are more than they are. They can’t admit their need of help. They can’t acknowledge that even through they look good on the outside that deep inside they are weak and powerless. It’s okay to fail. Failure doesn’t devalue us. It reminds us that we need more than we have. And that realization pushes us back to God. That's why Paul could say

But he (God) said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (II Cor. 12:9-10)

So let’s all be thankful for failure. We need an honest assessment of our abilities. Only then can we see our need. Only then will our value come out of God’s love for us and not our ability to make it through life without Him.