Failure and Faithfulness

I had written a fairly lengthy post on the subject of failure and faithfulness, but then I deleted it because it didn’t accomplish my goal—I found it to be more discouraging than encouraging.

Here was the overall point of that post: I fail. A lot. With my family, in my personal life, and in my ministry—especially in my ministry (it was in my attempt to list some of those failures that the post quickly became discouraging!).

But while failures can be incredibly disappointing and can sometimes even paralyze us into inaction, ultimately, they aren’t that big of a deal.

I ran across a quotation a year or so ago that I really liked:

“God doesn’t call us to be successful; He calls us to be faithful.”

I don’t remember where I came across it originally, and a quick Google search didn’t reveal the author. Nevertheless, I think it’s a good message: over and over again in Scripture, God calls for faithfulness from His followers, but He doesn’t demand success.

For a Christian, husband, father, and minister who seems to spend a lot of his time failing, that’s a comforting thought—God cares more about my unrelenting, dogged pursuit of Him than my triumphs (or lack thereof) on earth.

I can live with that.