Failure

God is so funny about putting things at you all at once - isn't he? For me - I've gotten hit with messages about "failures" lately & how we learn from them. It started in the oddest place! I finally got to watch "Batman Begins" - I can't believe I hadn't seen it yet but with the new movie of "The Dark Knight" coming out, I had to catch up. Ricky had gone to see it at the theaters one year I was at Women of Faith & I just never got around to watching it. So I'm watching it & I'm the sort of person who loves quotes. Some of them really are great lines & thoughts that get me thinking. Well, in the movie - if you remember, Bruce Wayne's dad told him this & then later, Geeves, the butler - "Why does one fall? So that we may learn to pick ourselves up" - I thought that was too cool! My Christian mind made me think though that we don't necessarily learn to pick up ourselves, but we learn that we can rely on God to help pick us back up.

Then this morning, I get an email from the awesome group at Swerve - & the topic? Failure. They are going to be sending out thoughts on three types of Failures - the failure to try, the failure to execute & the failure to succeed. Guilty of all three actually - but its showing how failure is a requirement - not an option with being human.

Then the question came at the end - "What has been your experience with failure? How has it changed your life? Or has it?"

I cant see how failure can NOT change your life! Don't we learn from every failure - whether it be a good or bad lesson? Failure is hard, even if we do learn an amazing lesson from it because its usually a lost opportunity. I'm just so thankful that God gives us chance after chance after each failure in my life. Where would hope be if we didn't have God with us when we fail?

Psalm 73:26 "My flesh & my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart & my portion forever"

So - have you learned from your failures?