The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed onto a small, uninhabited island.  He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, as any of us would.  Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.  Believing that he would live the rest of his days on the island, he built a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few prized possessions.  One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames.  Dark clouds of smoke billowed toward the sky.  Everything was lost: not only the man’s protection but also all he had worked hard to keep safe.  Anger welled up within.  "God, how could you do this to me?" he screamed to the sky.  “I asked for rescue, and all I got was more disaster!”  The man dropped on the warm sand and didn’t move until morning.  The dawn’s first light didn’t stir the man as in previous mornings, but the blast of a ship’s horn did.  The man rose up to see a cruise liner approaching the island.  It had come to rescue him.  "How did you know I was here?" the weary man asked his rescuers.  "We saw the flames on the beach, and your smoke signal," they replied.

How many times have we categorized things that go wrong as failures, and not possibly the beginnings of success?  How many times have we given up when we haven’t done something as perfectly as we wanted, instead of imagining what lessons we might have learned from our mistakes?  We do this a lot, don’t we?  If it doesn’t work the first or second time, then we give up.  We give up on the project, on others, and on ourselves.  We may even give up on God, believing God to be distant and unfeeling about our situation. 

Some failures are the beginning of successes.  In fact, if we see failure as a part of life, we might realize that any failure is a wonderful opportunity to learn something new.  According to some reports it took Thomas Edison 2000 times to create a viable light bulb, and when asked about the failures he said, “But I learned 2000 different ways not to create a light bulb.”  Great lessons can come to us through failure. 

We fail to realize that maybe that thing which failed should have failed, so that something greater might come forward.  Things may go wrong because they were supposed to, because we were supposed to grow through our mistakes.  An island hut, a job interview, a carefully-detailed plan, a championship match: If they hadn’t have failed us, we would not have received the greater, the more appropriate, thing which God wanted us to have all along.

“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”  That’s because we are sinful people who never get it right the first time.  It is not fun to fail.  However, once in awhile we have to fall on our faces in order to look up and see God reaching out his hand toward us.  While we sit in the holes of our failure, we cannot do anything but look up and see God.  Every other direction may be cut off to us.  Up is the only way.  It is best to grab onto God’s hand and let him lift us up.  Let him dust us off.  And then hear how he encourages us to move forward. 

 Peace in Christ,

Rev. Dr. John