THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FAILURE

AND BEING TRIED

The Wikipedia defines failure as “the stat e or condition of not meeting

a desirable or intended object ive, and may be viewed as the opposite
of success. ” (wi ki /Fai lure, 2011) It goes on to define sin as “to want
control of one 's destiny in opposit ion to t he will of God ”.

By
Guy St ubbs

+ 2 7 8 2 4 5 4 1 0 2 8 , G U Y S T U B B S @ MW E B . C O . Z A , P . O . B O X 1 5 , I R E N E , 0 0 6 2 , S O U T H A F R I C A

Mi d d l e a g e d s h e p h e r d s l e a r n i n g n u m e r a c y a f t e r t h e i r l i ve s w e r e f o r c e d t o c h a n g e i n
Lesotho – by Guy Stubbs
Becoming aw are of God’s w ill

A man thought he was doing God’s will by developing a massive

tourism business in Lesotho that was going to protect the natural
environment, provide over 10,000 impoverished people with
employment that would lift them out of poverty and invigorate the
local economy. For a while it seemed to the man that God was in
favour of the project. He quic kly raised a large sum of funds,
bought farms and built a five star mountain lodge. And then
suddenly everything went wrong (for the man). His partners
turned against him, funders reneged on their commitments and
government officials embezzled project fund s; which led to his
bankruptcy. In his eyes he had failed.

But God had plans for the man. After trying everything he could to
rebuild another business, the man failed again. He lost his
savings, home, cars and a lot of valuable possessions. W orst of
all, his beloved wife had become really ill from all the stress and
his children had suffered severely. The man couldn’t understand
why his world had kept falling apart no matter how hard he tried.
Then one day a Christian psychologist told the man that he
needed spiritual counselling, not psychological counselling. It was
at that point that the man realised that he had being doing what
he thought God wanted him to do rather than doing what God
wanted him to do. And so began his relationship with Jesus.

Refining produced pureness

Slowly the man began to understand the lesson in the scripture

“But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall
come out as gold.” (Job 23:10, 2011) He realised that God
understood his intentions, (which like Job’s were good ones but
unlike Job, he had not persevered in God’s steps), that God had
allowed him to fail in order to test him and then through the
process improve him as a person. Like the pu rification of gold and
the parting process (first recorded in the Arthasastra, a 4th
century BC treatise from India, which mentions heating of gold
with Indus earth to separate gold from silver ) (wiki/Gold_Parting,
2010) we need to be parted from sin before purification can
happen.

Attainment

“How comforting!” realised the man. In other words, if you actively

seek God, He will transform you through your failures into a
better person. (Pink, 1964) “Now set your mind and heart to seek
the Lord your God.” (1 Chronicles 22:19 , 2010) Failure had
turned from being something negative into something positive.
Failure became a learning progression of events, a school
experience and a self-improvement process. God was teaching
the man to go deeper into his relationship with Him. “He …
thought that his life was out of control and burning like a meteor,
but in reality God, his heat shield, still protected him from the
fiery forces that surrounded him. ” (Hillman, 2011) The man had
needed to go through a paradigm shift – (a term used to describe
a profound change in a perception of events).
(wiki/Paradigm_shift, 2011) God tells us clearly how we are to
revere Him: “I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to
no other, nor my praise to carved idols.” (Isaiah 42:8, 2010) So
through pride and idolatry we give ourselves the glory and we fail
to give God His due glory.

Acknow ledging God’s sovereignty

The man realised that he needed to pray and ask God “O Lord,
Hear My Cry for Mercy!” (Psalm 130:1–2 , 2011) Like the psalm
describes, the man had climbed from out of the depths of misery
over sin, to confession of it (vv. 3 –4), to hope (vv. 5 –6) and
assurance (vv. 7 –8). (ESV Study Bible, 2010) The man
understood that even though earthly failure was a scary place to
be, God is always there with us. “Even though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with
me”. (Psalm 23:4, 2010) And that God actually allows us to fail
sometimes so that we can better see Him. “I will give you the
treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you
may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you
by your name.” (Isaiah 45:3 , 2010)

Failure in God’s eyes

The more the man studied the W ord, the more he began to
understand that the failure he had first felt was an earthly failure.
As a fallen race, we revere earthly gods. W hen we refer to
success it usually means we have succeeded in achieving earthly
goals like wealth, status and comfort. Failure in itself is not
necessarily sinful but the intention that results in the failure or
success is often sinful. The man learnt from Jesus - “Enter by the
narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads
to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate
is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who
find it are few. ” (Matthew 7:13-14 , 2010)

He began to understand that he needed to relinquish his own will

and desire for control, but not his responsibility. It became clear
what the Preacher meant when he said “W hat does man gain by
all the toil at which he toils under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 1:3,
2010) i.e. On Earth. “Instead of “seek[ing] and … search[ing] out
by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy
business that God has given to the children of man to be busy
with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and
behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. ” (Ecclesiastes 1:13 -
14 , 2010) The man understood that seeking earthly success
alone was a waste of time and so he tried to understand w hat
heavenly failure meant. “Everyone who makes a practice of
sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. ” (1 John
3:4, 2010) So contradicting God’s will was a blatant form of failing
or sinning and “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails
to do it, for him it is sin.” (James 4:17 , 2010) And at the same
time omitting to do what we ought to do is also failure or sin.

Failing to pray

After reading some books about prayer, the man saw the light
when he read “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who
gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts
is like a wave of the sea that is drive n and tossed by the wind.
For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything
from the Lord; he is a double -minded man, unstable in all his
ways.” (James 1:5 -8 , 2010) The Lord requires of us to pray to
Him, to ask for wisdom, to ask for comfort. If we fail to pray and
to pray in faith, then we must expect failure.

To succeed

“I am the vine; you are the branches. W hoever abides in me and I

in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from m e you can do
nothing.” (John 15:5, 2010)

Much of what has been stated above is true to the trials and
difficulties I have experienced . But I realise that these are
lessons that all of us as Christians need to learn . In all that we
do, we must seek to pray, in humble dependence, in Christ that
we succeed, in order to bring glory to God. Not doing this, will
result in failure.
A m i d d l e - a g e d e x - s h e p h e r d m i l l i n g m a i ze a f t e r h e wa s f o r c e d t o c h a n g e h i s l i f e i n
Lesotho – by Guy Stubbs

Works Cited
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http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Failure
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Hole TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2
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