28 April 2009

Failure is not an option...

A friend reminded me of that quote today…attributed to Gene Krantz, flight director for the ill-fated Apollo 13. (For those of you who are either too young or haven’t seen the movie, the crew and ship were almost lost because of a malfunction in the ship’s service module.) When men’s lives are in jeopardy and a blockbuster movie is in the making, I suppose that failure is not an option. At least not one we care to entertain.

But let’s be honest here. Failure is always a distinct possibility. Things go wrong…sometimes spectacularly, like when oxygen tanks blow gaping holes in space ships. Sometimes, however, it’s just the pile of little things gone sideways that can leave us staring at the mess in which we sit. And when (not if, but when) that happens, we can learn a lot about ourselves by how it is that we react to the situation.

Reaction 1: we can find fault and fix blame. This seems to be the most fashionable response. Take a glance at our current economic and political scene, if you need an example. Finger-pointing, innuendo and despair are as common as hot air in Washington. Does this solve anything? No. But we’re under the impression that it makes us feel better for a few minutes, assured that it wasn’t me who screwed up but that ^*#$%@ from the other office/party/administration/etc.

Reaction 2: we can decide that failure isn’t the end of the road. This, it seems to me, is the most faithful reaction for Christians. After all, we claim one as Lord who was, in many respects, a dismal failure. I mean, really: you can’t fail much bigger than by getting yourself hung up naked and killed. Turns out, however, that what looked initially like a resounding “F” merely opened the door for an “A+” that we could never have imagined.

Now…I’m not suggesting that we should invite failure, or that we should not do our best to succeed at whatever tasks are set before us. But we should not let our failures and our foibles stifle us or keep us from moving forward towards whatever God has in mind for us. Since we’re not perfect, we’re going to need the Lord to get us there anyway. And, thanks be to God, giving us the future seems precisely what God has in mind.

So, lighten up. Relax. Do your best for the sake of the Christ who loves you. Then let it go and let God be god. Whether our projects fail or succeed is not nearly so important as whether or not we are faithful to the one who walks with us every step of the way.