Failure Is Okay, If You're Growing

"It's your only excuse," said my wife - "that you're growing."

A little context. I'm a pastor and I've found there are notable things in me that still require honing. We're all on a journey, and none of us are perfect. As a pastor, not unlike some other professions, there's no place to hide, and nor should there be, when it comes to character and integrity. The latest iteration of growth set by God for me involved how I saw others, and inevitably how I also saw me. We can muse about the humility of our journey, but the circumstances of our lives are the final judge.

When my wife mentioned these words above, I was amazed at their wisdom. Suddenly, I imagined God saying those very words - that any moral failure we make is okay, if we're growing. A very operative word there is "if."

In other words, what's past is past, but what's ahead we can still influence. Our pasts can be forgiven us, but in our present and future are opportunities to either continue along the wrong path, or to make a course correction - now.

I had had a massive course correction. That's okay. What's life if we are never significantly re-directed. Of course, there are those who live wisely enough to only need the gentlest of nudges - not me.

Failure really is fine, provided there is impetus to improve, not that we'll be anything close to being perfect.

God's work of grace heals faulty vessels, broken by dysfunctional life, surrendered through injustice and humiliation.

Steve Wickham is a pastor who holds Degrees in Science, Divinity, and Counselling. Steve writes at: http://epitemnein-epitomic.blogspot.com.au/ and http://tribework.blogspot.com.au/