fail forward
What an incredibly hard and an incredibly awesome weekend. I heard a sermon this morning that may be one of the cornerstones of my life and then I heard another one tonight that just added so much to stuff I'm already processing through. It's just awesome how things just happen to come at a time when you need it most.
This morning the pastor told the story of how Peter denied Jesus three times and then how Jesus reinstates Peter and shows him such amazing grace. I have read that story maybe 28 times and I have never been more impacted than I was with it today. Peter fails Jesus in a big way. He denies their friendship and even knowing him at all. Jesus loves Peter in a way that I have no idea. He loves him so much that his desire is to redeem him. He appears to the disciples after his death and resurrection and the whole intention is to bring Peter back home. He asks Peter if he loves him three times - not to make him feel like crap or because he needs to hear it but because he knows Peter needs to have that conversation. After Peter tells him he loves him three times Jesus starts a discussion about his future and about how his death will glorify God. He gives Peter a picture of his life until death and it offers such hope. He doesn't bring up the fact that Peter failed him. Jesus doesn't love him less because of it. He never talks about it. He's done with it. I wonder if Peter was? Their whole interaction was meticulously designed to remind Peter of Jesus' love for him. Its amazing to see the way Jesus works.
God doesn't want our failures to destroy us. He wants them to deepen us into a better understanding of him and to deepen us to just love him more. He wants us to fail forward...to allow our failures to push us forward in our relationship with him. He doesn't focus on our past...he focuses on what's happening now and in the future. I LOVE THAT. Why is it SO hard to accept that? Why do we let our past paralyze us and keep us in this place that is not healthy for us. Why can't we believe that God is over it...he forgives us...he loves us? We allow our past to keep us from greatness and from experiencing true life and love. How do we break that? How do we live? How do we feel the same way about ourselves that God does? I just wish I knew even a little bit of that answer.
This morning the pastor told the story of how Peter denied Jesus three times and then how Jesus reinstates Peter and shows him such amazing grace. I have read that story maybe 28 times and I have never been more impacted than I was with it today. Peter fails Jesus in a big way. He denies their friendship and even knowing him at all. Jesus loves Peter in a way that I have no idea. He loves him so much that his desire is to redeem him. He appears to the disciples after his death and resurrection and the whole intention is to bring Peter back home. He asks Peter if he loves him three times - not to make him feel like crap or because he needs to hear it but because he knows Peter needs to have that conversation. After Peter tells him he loves him three times Jesus starts a discussion about his future and about how his death will glorify God. He gives Peter a picture of his life until death and it offers such hope. He doesn't bring up the fact that Peter failed him. Jesus doesn't love him less because of it. He never talks about it. He's done with it. I wonder if Peter was? Their whole interaction was meticulously designed to remind Peter of Jesus' love for him. Its amazing to see the way Jesus works.
God doesn't want our failures to destroy us. He wants them to deepen us into a better understanding of him and to deepen us to just love him more. He wants us to fail forward...to allow our failures to push us forward in our relationship with him. He doesn't focus on our past...he focuses on what's happening now and in the future. I LOVE THAT. Why is it SO hard to accept that? Why do we let our past paralyze us and keep us in this place that is not healthy for us. Why can't we believe that God is over it...he forgives us...he loves us? We allow our past to keep us from greatness and from experiencing true life and love. How do we break that? How do we live? How do we feel the same way about ourselves that God does? I just wish I knew even a little bit of that answer.
posted by jmjana @ 12:25 AM
22 Comments:
At 9:15 AM,
Peggy Murphy said…
I just called the World Record Book people (I don't know how to spell "Guiness") to tell them to check out your blog for most qustions ever recorded in a short article.
But...they DO happen to be pretty dern important..
At 11:16 AM,
Anonymous said…
Brothers I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize, for which God has called me Heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things….
If I could just keep moving forward, I could probably get a lot more done. I wish I was mature enough to take your “failing forward” view all the time.
I tried calling you back yesterday-- Hopefully we can talk some time soon.
At 3:57 AM,
stef shaffer said…
i agreed with this point more when we talked about it then here. i dont think God wants us to forget- in fact i think he calls us more to remembering. And i dont know if you would disagree with me- but coupled with Dans verse (no offense Dan) it didnt sit well with me. because i think we are called to re enter our failures, and also how we have been failed- and in sitting in our stories, and remembering them, find redemption. Peter is called to this as Jesus is breaking bread over a camp fire. It has always been interesting to me that Jesus at the last supper told them as they broke the bread to "remember" i have always kind of wondered if Peter remembered Jesus's call to remember as Jesus once again broke bread that morning, and asked Peter if he loved Him (three times, which seemed to also call him to remember the 3 times of rejecting Him) so yes, God wants to use our failures, but i dont think that he wants us to push forward through them and forget, but to sit (not a quick thing) and remember. something i am so not good in and find myself constantly trying not to do because of how uncomfortable it is.
At 9:54 AM,
Steve Fuller said…
Stef,
I don't think God's wants us to "forget" our failures, I just think he wants us to move past them. He uses my failures for the good of his Kingdom, so no, he doesn't want us to pretend like they never happened. But staying in those places of failure is exhausting and draining. God wants us moving forward, just like Paul quickly did after his encounter on the road to Damascus.
At 11:34 AM,
Anonymous said…
Hmm, “forget” is kind of a slippery word when we talk about this stuff right?
Stef, Steve, I don’t disagree with any of your thoughts on this.
We can’t find redemption unless we remember…The thing is, REAL redemption is hard for us to believe and receive, so it’s easy to carry failure around…that’s bad.
When we do receive redemption, it really changes who we are….we move on as a new creation. We need to embrace that.
I think after we experience redemption and forgiveness it might be dangerous to revisit some failures outside the context of “having been redeemed from them”.
I read somewhere, (and I don’t know where it was recorded or if it’s true) that it had become the popular chant among those who were opposed to the early church to yell “Remember the rooster!!” at Peter when he spoke in public. At that point I don’t think God wanted Peter to remember the rooster, He wanted him to remember his redemption.
I find that there are a lot of things in my life that scream “remember the rooster”.
At 12:00 PM,
Annie Michael Murphy said…
I was just going to say I don't think God wants us to remember or forget stuff. I think He wants to grow us up and use things. There are consequences and lessons from things but neither dwelling on stuff and/or remembering the good ol days are beneficial. Which I think is just rephrasing what Steve said...
At 1:12 PM,
stef shaffer said…
yes, i agree with both of you that our failures are not the final word- and that evil does not have the final word good call
At 4:34 PM,
Wes & McKenzie Brooks said…
God has chosen to not remember our sins so I doubt he wants us to dwell on them either. When we fail we are reminded of our need for Him but it seems that He is more concerned about us delighting in and trusting in Him than us focusing on our shortcomings.
At 10:49 PM,
Anonymous said…
I can't remember what I was about to write here...
So who thinks that's a good thing?
And who thinks that's a bad thing?
I'm confused.
At 10:54 PM,
Anonymous said…
Oh, yeah. I remember, now.
I think that we can all agree that there is a healthy remembering and an unhealthy remembering.
There is a healthy forgetfulness and an unhealthy forgetfulness.
I often think about the themes in the OT and even somewhat in the NT regarding remembering. God continuously calls his people to remember things. He even gives them means to do so - festivals, feasts, monuments, sacraments, etc.
Typically, though, the thing to be remembered is typically Him. So maybe that's the catch - I think that when we dwell on things, we tend to dwell on OUR role in them. That's often not good. But if we are constantly reminding ourselves of God's goodness in the past, His faithfulness, and His mercy (even or especially in the midst of a time of significant failure on our part), then it seems the remembering is a very good thing.
So I can think about a mistake or a failure in one of two contexts: either I can dwell on how I blew it and ruined everything, or I can think about how God demonstrated his faithfulness in the midst of my failure and led me to a better place. That seems like a good outcome to me.
At 2:21 PM,
Annie Michael Murphy said…
its time for the update the blog harrassing to begin. how was aladdin?
At 10:29 PM,
Annie Michael Murphy said…
seriously.
At 7:39 AM,
Liz said…
Ya, this is getting ridic.
P.S. I don't think I can ever eat licorice again.
At 4:27 PM,
jmjana said…
liz you are SICK
and i was like, hmm...wonder if liz decided to be sick and i look and see YESSSSSSSS
At 8:57 PM,
Annie Michael Murphy said…
i used to love licorice. UPDATE THIS B
At 9:04 AM,
Liz said…
maybe you could title it: "my experience with licorice"
At 10:50 AM,
Annie Michael Murphy said…
The comments will get progressively worse and more harrassmental.
At 10:52 AM,
Bragg said…
don't you have the day off from school or something? can't you be using this time to update your blog? What are you wasting your time doing when you know it needs to be spent doing something positive here.
At 12:10 PM,
Annie Michael Murphy said…
Twizzlers: Friend or Foe
At 9:06 PM,
stef shaffer said…
i HOPE that you all are NOT talking about jana, twizzlers, and high school... i HOPE SO BAD... if so - jana PLEASE change the subject ASAP... thank you.
At 9:10 AM,
Liz said…
i am and now you see why she needs to update! :)
At 1:42 PM,
agirloutthere said…
Wow, you were trying to comment while I was trying to figure out how to turn everything back on. Now everything is back on.
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