At Home – by Rudy Gray

You can fail without being a failure. Most parents, for example, face the daunting task of child rearing with some degree of uncertainty. As parents, we will fail – but that doesn’t mean we are failures as parents if our children get the message that they are loved.

Rudy Gray

One of my favorite stories in the New Testament is the experience of John Mark. He was raised in a godly home and had the unprecedented privilege of seeing and hearing some of the greatest leaders in the early church. Mary, his mother, was a woman of means, and she no doubt cared for her son. Mark volunteered for an extended mission with Paul, but for some reason quit and came home. Later, Paul was planning another mission trip, and Barnabas wanted to take his young relative Mark along. The contention between Paul and Barnabas became so strong that they parted ways. Paul took Silas as his mission partner. He refused to take John Mark, the quitter, with him.

As the years went by, we wonder what happened to John Mark. Apparently he learned that he could fail without being a failure. He proved that he could learn, change, and develop. He became a trusted servant of God and worker in God’s kingdom. When Paul was near the end of his life, he wrote in 2 Timothy 4:11, “Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service.”

You and I can fail without being failures. We are a failure when we quit and stay quit. We are not a failure when we make a mistake. When we sin, we have been given a plan for how to handle it (I John 1:9). One of the greatest mistakes we make in life is not to learn from our mistakes. One of the best things we can do is to learn from our mistakes.

Albert Einstein was 4 years old before he could talk. Beethoven was told by a music teacher that he would never make it as a composer. Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper job because he didn’t have any good ideas. Even when a woman was caught in the act of adultery, Jesus gave her a second chance when he said, “Neither do I condemn you; from now on sin no more (don’t commit this sin again).”

Babe Ruth set a record of failure by striking out 1,330 times. He is in the Baseball Hall of Fame today not because he failed, but because of his great success in hitting 714 home runs.

We may not want failure or even plan for it, but it will come. We do not have to be failures if we keep moving forward with genuine faith, God’s grace, and personal confession. You and I can fail without being a failure.