Thursday, May 19, 2016

Failure

Pipestem River
Brene Brown, in her book, Rising Strong, is speaking of her guiding principals - the basic tenets about being brave.  This first one is:
"If we are brave enough often enough, we will fail; this is the physics of vulnerability. When we commit to showing up and risking falling, we are actually committing to falling.  Daring is not saying, "I'm willing to risk failure." Daring is saying, "I know I will eventually fail and I'm still all in."
This is true in life, but I want to talk today about how it is true in the Body of Christ - in the work we call "church." I think in our church we are afraid.  We are afraid that not enough people are coming. We are afraid because we don't know what to do about it. We are so afraid, and so tired of the fear, that we do nothing. 

Do we fail to try because we are afraid of failure? Maybe sometimes. Is it freeing to realize that stepping out, and trying something, guarantees failure? Can we move forward with ideas if we give ourselves the permission to fail - not even that, but the expectation of failure?
  1. Do we not ask someone to do something because we know they will say, "no"? Ask anyway. Knowing they will say "no," ask anyway. 
  2. Do we fail to try an idea because someone says, "We've done that before, and it didn't work." Knowing that you will fail, the fact that it didn't work before is no excuse. Do it anyway - as long as God is leading and you are following, do it anyway. Or, if that doesn't seem like where God is calling you to go, then:
  3. Do we fail to try something because someone says, "We've never done that before; it won't work." If you know you will fail, do it anyway.
The corollary to not trying is doing nothing. Do nothing will lead to nothing. Doing nothing is a failure. So try something instead. It's OK to fail - you are guaranteed to fail. At least fail at doing something instead of doing nothing.

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