What is failure? The Bible is above all a story of failure redeemed, failure forgiven, failure overcome in resurrection and merciful judgement. Jesus knew that to be a follower of his would not be an easy path to walk, and he prepared his followers well for failure.

Failure. This might not seem a hopeful topic to study for Lent. In actual fact, it is one of the most hopeful topics, especially when seen in light of what Lent is bringing us towards… Easter. The Cross on Easter Saturday would have been seen as the greatest failure of all time. See Matthew 27:42 for a first hand account of how the Cross was seen. In retrospect, we know about Easter Sunday; when the glory of God’s plan for forgiveness is realised and the curtain of the law is torn forever. What was seen as an epic failure was actually, the ultimate success for humanity. When failure is viewed like this, who cannot be hopeful!

From the Bible

⁴² “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.

Matthew 27:42

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Study Notes

• Failure is a club we are all part of. It’s not something we can avoid or hide from, but is common to us all. Perhaps it’s better to take sensible precautions to limit its effects, to fail in ways that don’t hurt others, and to just get on with living.
• We need to get better at understanding what failure is – and is not. We tend to lump them all together. Some failure is necessary to lead to new discoveries and it is to be positively encouraged. Perhaps we should learn to ask ‘What went wrong, and how can we learn from that?’ when we fail.
• We imagine that we move through failure to success, but the Bible shows a much more up and down picture than that where often success is followed by apparent failure – and then God’s redemption.

From the Book

Lent is a great time to think about our failures, but let’s be careful how we approach this. During Lent, quite rightly, we bring our failures to mind and to the attention of a loving God who is always readier to forgive us than we are to repent. Sometimes, though it’s tempting to treat Lent itself as something that we should be hugely successful at. I may try really hard to give up chocolate or swearing, and find myself very smug if I get to the end of a week without indulging in either. Alternatively, I may become despondent if I happen to slip up in the scrupulousness of the spiritual disciplines I have set myself. One writer says:

I . . . wonder if a certain sense of failure during Lent is actually a good thing. In part, it reminds us that Lent is not a home renovation show. The primary goal of the season is not self-improvement; we are not here to fix up our own personal backsplash. We are trying to open ourselves to a deeper relationship with our friend and saviour, Jesus.

Above all, Lent is a time when we are encouraged to turn to God and God’s word in the Bible and allow it to be reflected in our own lives to enable us to see ourselves as we really are.

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The primary thing that stops organizations, and the people within them, making the kinds of failures that may lead to success is fear, fear of getting it wrong. Such fear takes several forms: fear that we will be found inadequate for the task, fear of harming ourselves or other people (though that is probably a good fear to have), fear that we will be embarrassed or shamed.
A degree of fear of failure is to be welcomed. It is that kind of healthy fear which is the precursor to trying new things. It shows we are moving into areas that we have not been in before and are not sure how things will turn out. But some fear of failure is altogether less positive and even crippling. There is a word for an extreme fear of failure: ‘atychiphobia’, which is an abnormal, unwarranted and persistent fear of failing at something in your life.
At the root of our fear of failure is a fear of shame, ‘the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love, belonging, and connection’. There is an embarrassment connected with failure. When we fail, we feel that we are incompetent, not up to the job, somehow less.

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Discussion Questions

• Think of an example of failure that you love and another that you hate. What was the difference between them?
• How does fear of failure affect your ability to learn from your mistakes
• What kinds of failure are you most aware of at the moment, in your own life and that of others?
• In what ways does society’s judgement of failure influence you?
• What does Jesus say about failure?