Have you ever looked back and wondered how different your life would be if only a few outcomes went your way? Maybe life would’ve turned out better. Maybe I would’ve had more confidence. Maybe I could’ve had a lot more money!
Like that one game my Sophomore year of High School. My team was playing for the league championship against the top seed. They were bigger, more athletic, and the all-around better team. They knew it and we knew it. It was going to take a miracle. Luckily, our coach was a 7’0” tall former NBA player. He had coached us up and we had just enough hope that we could pull off the upset.
We shot out of the locker room like a bolt of lightening. We jumped on them early and built a 15 point lead. The energy was electric and we could taste victory. Early in the fourth quarter, disaster struck. Our best player fouled out of the game. We were still up by 10, but we were playing scared. We stalled every time we had the ball on offense.
They were like piranhas with the smell of blood in the water. They pressed us hard and took over the lead. Down by 2 with just a few seconds left, I was fouled and went to the line for two free throws. The first shot went straight in. The second one was short and clanged off the front of the rim. They rebounded the ball, the buzzer sounded, and I felt like my world came crashing down.
Failure is like a punch to the gut. It takes the air right out of you.
Even if you are not an athlete, you can relate. You crushed the interview, but they decided to go with another candidate. You raised your kids up right, but they went in the wrong direction. You worked hard and prepared, but still didn’t get accepted into your University of choice.
Failure.
When it happens it’s hard not to feel like the universe is out to get us. It seems as though we can’t get a break. It’s easy to get down on ourselves and wonder if we will ever have what it takes to succeed.
I love to turn to the Apostle Paul in moments like these. He’s a person who knows a thing or two about failure, about bad breaks, and feeling like you can’t go on. He writes to the church of Corinth about facing overwhelming persecution and says this…
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 NIV
Paul had learned to reframe his moments of defeat by seeing them in the big picture. He might feel despair, or feel abandoned in the moment, but he didn’t let the moment define him.
My Second source of inspiration is Michael Jordan, the greatest NBA basketball player of all time. Someone asked him how he became so successful at the game of basketball. His reply was genius.
I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
Michael Jordan
Success feels amazing, but at the end of the day, our failures can do more to benefit us. They can prepare us for the next challenge. They can drive us to work harder if we let them. And they keep us humble enough to avoid the complacency that often comes with having everything go our way.
Of course, failure doesn’t automatically produce those results. How we respond to failure is what gives it potential. It’s a lesson. It’s a challenge. It’s a catalyst. It’s all those things and more. I’ll leave you with this one final quote.
“Success is not final. Failure is not fatal: It is the courage to keep going that counts.”
Winston Churchhill