Failure & Success
The one thing that prevents individuals & organizations from experiencing growth & success is a fear of failure. While fear can be a healthy thing from time to time, when it is our modus operandi, it cripples us in life & ministry.
I think you need to write this next statement down: "A willingness to fail in the short term is the only thing that can position you to succeed in the long run." Many people may be one more failure away from the breakout moment they've been looking for. Most ministries are simply one more failed idea away from the explosive innovation & growth they've so desperately prayed for. However, the fear of that failure keeps us from moving forward. It keeps us firmly planted in what is known, familiar, & comfortable. In short, it keeps us in what has worked. The only problem is that very rarely, if ever, is that the thing that you or your ministry needs to do to continue working.
Jesus is a prime example of the willingness to fail now for the sake of long term success. By anyone else's standards, Jesus' ministry would have been a failure. He was a breakout superstar who was all alone in the end. His closest disciples abandoned Him, people mocked Him, the government & the religious establishment silenced Him forever, so they thought. Jesus' willingness to "fail" is what has made the last 2000 years of redemption & restoration possible. While it may have looked like Jesus & His little movement had been stamped out, the reality was that Jesus' death unlocked victory & opened the flood gates of grace.
What do you need to do as an individual to grow? What uncomfortable place do you need to go to in order to become more & more the person God desires you to be? What decision do you need to make as a leader that will position you to succeed long term? What decision scares you the most? What change do you know you need to make, but you are too afraid... of the change, of the people, of failing? It is very possible that it is that very decision, it is that uncomfortable place that you must embrace in order to really go where God would have you go.
2 comments:
Have you already read "in a pit with a lion on a snowy day" by Batterson? This is dead on with that book.
yeah, i love Mark's writing. his new book "primal" should be out in time for christmas. he's really excited about it. he thinks "primal" will be a movement kind of book.
Post a Comment