Failure is inevitable. It is part of being a sinful person in a sinful world. And yet, as believers, we are called to live above failure. We are equipped by God Himself to do all things well. And yet - be honest - we don't. How do we reconcile this situation? How can we keep moving forward, when it is only a matter of time before we fall?
The answer, as we'll see from Scripture, is to fall forward.
Failure Is Inevitable
Failure can come in many shapes and sizes for the believer, and at some point we experience every variation. It may be a failure to act, or a failure to refrain. It may be a one-off careless mistake, or it may be a besetting sin. It may have relatively minor impact, or life-altering consequences. Whatever form it takes, failure is inevitable, but I've always disliked attitude carried by most Christians about that brutal truth. As usual, we seem to move to one extreme or another on the spectrum: on the one side are those who use the reality of failure as an excuse to browbeat themselves and (more often) other believers, while on the other end are those who use the reality of failure as an excuse to make light of sin. Neither of these extremes has biblical precedent.
Pastor Kyle Stephens strikes the biblical balance on this topic in his book Building Thereupon. On page 584 he offers the following counsel:
Know that the bitter conflict in the Christian life is NORMAL, not exceptional or unusual. The habit and lifestyle of sin is not to be excused or embraced, but the ebb and flow of spiritual gains and losses, progress and regression, victory and defeat is the lot of the Christian in real life. The battleground of lusts, longings, habits, passions, gains, and setbacks is normal, not atypical, aberrant, or deviant.
Learn how to respond to failure. Though there can be no excuse for sin before a Holy God, sinful human nature is an insidious, ever-present reality. A toddler falls a thousand times before he walks. He falls and gets up again and again, making incremental progress in real time. The Lord does not expect you to get through this walk or this fight unscathed. Fighters and soldiers suffer wounds, defeats, and losses, then they heal, get back up, and learn from their experiences. You do the same.
Know that feelings vacillate. Feelings of inadequacy, lack of merit, conviction, and self-deprecation are regular fare for still-sinful souls called to a holy commission. Such is to be expected when Christians falter or fail. Remember that Paul called himself a wretched man (Rom. 7:24). Conviction should be sharp, deserved guilt should bring tears, and broken fellowship with God should be heartbreaking.
Direct the brokenness and contrition Godward. Do not lie down, roll over, and give up! For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again (Prov. 24:16). Self-mortification must stop where it becomes an excuse to quit.
Use the bitter failures to draw nigh unto God. This was the example of Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, Paul, and Thomas. This list is easily expanded.
Side note: Pastor Stephens book is big (641 pages) but his clear, biblical, balanced comments on this subject (and many others throughout the book) make it well worth the $35 dollar price tag. Having read it, I would be willing to pay double that to have this treasure of biblical exposition if I had to buy it again.
Okay, back to the point: Stephens notes that no solider gets through war unscathed. This puts things in proper perspective rather than the trite-but-true "failure is inevitable" thought. Injury is not "okay" but it is an expected byproduct of war. And make no mistake, the war against our old sinful natures is more brutal and persistent than any war found in history books or on the nightly news. A solider who never suffers injury is either A) an actor in a war movie or B) not on the battlefield!
So, we're on a battlefield. Injury, failure, struggle, and disappointment are the lot of the soldier. But what do we do when we fail? How do we address the scrapes, bumps, bruises, and wounds that we receive (or inflict on ourselves) as we try to be good soldiers for Jesus Christ? I know my own tendency: when I face failures - big or small - I easily become discouraged, frustrated, and, like Adam, to hide from God. I am ashamed that in one way or another I fell short of the mark. I am disappointed that, after all the years of being a saved man doing his dead-level best to study God's word and live accordingly, I would allow that to happen. I have to make very conscious, and often labor intensive efforts to get my head biblically aligned, because left to myself I would spiral down into hopelessness. Maybe you're the same, or maybe you respond differently. Whatever the case may be, the biblical solution remains the same:
Fall forward.
Soldiers and Athletes
The Lord likens the Christian life to being a solider and an athlete. Let's consider each in turn.
Soldiers, as we've already said, must struggle. The enemy wants to wound, capture, and kill. The enemy wants to steal or destroy everything that the solider is fighting to protect. What is the primary action that soldiers take against the enemy? They move forward. Yes, there are bullets and bombs and blades, but at the heart of it all is forward movement. The establish a beachhead, or take a city, or advance across a battlefield. They move forward through pain, bloodshed, and loss. And soldiers are only taken off the battlefield if they lose their ability to keep moving forward. Even when that happens, the goal is to patch them up and - hopefully - get them back to moving things forward on the battlefield. Sure, the job may end up being different depending on the injury, but it takes every available solider to keep up the advance.
What about athletes? What is the basic thing that most every sport requires? You guessed it: forward movement. Football players move toward the goal line, baseball players advance around the bases, basketball players move up the court, soccer players traverse the field, volleyball players keep the ball moving back to the opponent's side. They move forward, even when the opposing team is attempting to block them. The game must go on. Think about runners. They move forward when they trip or fumble. They move forward even after they vomit (sometimes they keep moving forward while vomiting!). They get up and keep moving forward, even after face-planting while trying to clear a hurdle. The race continues. When an athlete messes up, the game doesn't conclude. They don't walk off the field, the court, or the track. They get up and double their efforts, because the game is still happening!
The Biblical Precedent
There is a precedent for "falling forward" in Scripture. Consider Paul. In Acts 21:4-11 the Lord warned him not to go to Jerusalem. He did it anyway. His intentions were certainly noble (see Acts 21:13), but it was disobedience nonetheless, and he was imprisoned as a result (not to mention beaten, shipwrecked, and bitten by a snake). Did Paul quit? Of course not! And more importantly, God did not quit on Paul (Acts 23:11). Paul fell forward, and God used him to testify before high-ranking Roman officials and minister to through epistles to the churches. Please forgive the lighthearted comparison, but it reminds me of the comedy Major Payne, when Payne tries to encourage a child by telling his own gleefully war-themed version of "The Little Engine That Could." Paul just kept chugging along...
We can also consider David. For every victory in the life of this great man, there was a failure right on its heels. For our purposes here, let's consider the events in I Samuel 30. During this time, David was on the run from Saul. He had set up a base of operations in Ziklag, and was faithfully fighting on behalf of the Philistines. In I Samuel 29 we find that David was even willing to go into battle against Israel! Perhaps there is something I have not yet understood in this portion of Scripture, but it seems to me like David was in the wrong place, with the wrong allies, prepared to go to the wrong battle. The Philistines were not confident that David would actually fight for them against Israel, and so David was spared from what could have been an irreversibly tragic event, but his troubles are not over. In I Samuel 30 David returns to Ziklag to find that the Amalekites had raided the city, burned it with fire, and taken the women and children captive (I Samuel 30:1-3). In Scripture, the Amalekites can serve as a type of the sinful flesh nature, and so this historical account creates a picture of failure for us. We make poor choices, and the flesh rears its head and threatens that which we hold dear. In verse six David was in a bad spot, as we too sometimes are:
And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.
Do you see what David did, however? The first thing he did was turn to the Lord for encouragement. In other words, he took time to remember who his God is. Like Asaph says in Psalm 77:10-12 says:
And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High. I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.
Next David sought the Lord's guidance. In verse eight it says:
And David enquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.
David didn't blast forward in his own wisdom, or based on his emotions. He determined in his heart to fall forward (notice the words "pursue" and "overtake") and sough the Lord's direction. With God's blessing, David then falls forward. In verses nine and ten it says:
So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed. But David pursued, he and four hundred men: for two hundred abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor.
Look at the verbs: David went, he came, he pursued. But also notice there were some that could not keep going. We'll come back to them in a minute. For right now, let's stick with David. Fast forward to verses seventeen through nineteen:
And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels, and fled. And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David rescued his two wives. And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them: David recovered all.
David smote his enemies, allowed none to escape, and - as emphasized - recovered all. Remember where David was back in chapter twenty-nine? Remember his loss at the start of chapter thirty? David recovered all because he fell forward. But it doesn't stop here: David, who had been prepared to go to war against Israel, continues to fall forward in verse twenty-six:
And when David came to Ziklag, he sent of the spoil unto the elders of Judah, even to his friends, saying, Behold a present for you of the spoil of the enemies of the Lord...
Scripture goes on to list several specific places David sent spoil to, concluding the list in verse thirty-one with "to all the places where David himself and his men were wont to haunt." Do you see the principle illustrated? David made mistakes, and suffered for it. The consequences were real, they were grievous, and they almost resulted in David losing his family and being stoned to death by his own people. Sin is not a light thing to be trifled with, and the flesh (pictured by the Amalekites) is sneaky and ruthless. But David fell forward. He turned to the Lord, sought His guidance, advanced against his enemy, and corrected his errors. That's what it means to fall forward. That is the precedent set for us in Scripture.
What About the 200 Faint Men?
There's one more thing we should consider before concluding. What about those 200 men who could not advance with David? Did they fail to fall forward? And what about when we are faint? Have we failed to fall forward if we have reached our physical, mental, or emotional limits? Let's see what Scripture says in verses twenty-one through twenty five:
And David came to the two hundred men, which were so faint that they could not follow David, whom they had made also to abide at the brook Besor: and they went forth to meet David, and to meet the people that were with him: and when David came near to the people, he saluted them. Then answered all the wicked men and men of Belial, of those that went with David, and said, Because they went not with us, we will not give them ought of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away, and depart. Then said David, Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord hath given us, who hath preserved us, and delivered the company that came against us into our hand. For who will hearken unto you in this matter? but as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff: they shall part alike. And it was so from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day.
Those who were critical of the faint are described as "wicked" and "men of Belial." If you know your Bible, then you know those terms are severe. These men sneered at those who had been faint, and wanted only to give them their families and then demand that they depart. In other words, they wanted to kick them out of the group. David has a different opinion, however. Rather than sneering and criticizing, he salutes these two-hundred faint men. He rebukes men who suggested harsh treatment of the faint, and then sets "a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day" that those who had been faint - and subsequently had tarried by the stuff - and those who proceeded on to the battle would not only have their families back, but also have an equal share of the spoil. That might seem unfair at first, especially if you had been one of those who risked your life in battle, but consider the matter from David's perspective. These two-hundred faint men had not failed - they came as far as Besor, didn't they? And when they could go no further, they were given a new job: to tarry by the stuff. After all, not leaving a guard is why the Amalekites had been able to raid Ziklag in the first place, right? These two-hundred men gave what they had to give, and when they could give no more, they were assigned a different (and equally important) task. It's like what we considered in a previous post: find a job. This is an important, balancing component of this idea of falling forward. Do the best you can. If these men had just been wimps, I'm sure David would have had a different perspective on them. They did the best they could, and they found a way to contribute in spite of their limitations. As you and I fall forward - and as we see others fall forward - we must adopt David's attitude. Maybe you weren't faint today. That's good! Go to the battle, and don't criticize those who don't have your strength or stamina! There may be a day when you are the one who is faint, and if (or when) that day comes, I'm sure you will hope others have compassion on you. And if (or when) that day comes, don't give up. Find a way to fall forward, however small, even if that means tarrying by the stuff to support others.
Closing Thoughts
Battlefields are dangerous, messy places. Injuries and failures are inevitable. But a good solider keeps moving forward. In spiritual warfare, falling forward allows us to continue being used by the Lord. Our stumbles, fumbles, falls, and failures may grieve us, but they don't change the Lord's expectations for us. If you're like me, you probably have a specific failure (or failures) in mind right now. Whatever it is, it happened. You can't change it. And there may be consequences. But don't let it go to waste. Don't let failure stop you. Fall forward. Like Paul says in II Corinthians 10:6:
And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
You've been disobedient to the Lord? You're in good company - every believer has been there. Fall forward by getting back to a place of obedience, and then taking revenge on that disobedience! Did you goof up an attempt to share the gospel? Learn from it, and try again. Did your besetting sin sink its claws into you again? Do everything you can to barricade against it. That sin might find a way to tempt you again tomorrow, but make sure it can't use the same path it used today. Make sure that sin can't get to you the same way twice! Block it! Cut it off! FALL FORWARD! Make it count! And don't carry your failure like an albatross around your neck. Instead, adopt Paul's attitude in Philippians 3:12-14 (emphasis added):
Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
In other words, keep chugging along...
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