Pastor’s Column 8/18/2024

PASTOR’S COLUMN

“A man came and knelt before Jesus and said, “Lord, have mercy on my son. He has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.” Jesus said, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well.

Matthew 17:14b-18, NLT                                                                                                                                  “Failure And An Opportunity”

When script writer Bill Broyles considered a tag line for the movie on the NASA Apollo 13 Space Mission, he asked the Flight Director Gene Krantz did the launch team experience any fear about the mission. He answered, “No.” Mr. Broyles took the answer to mean, “Failure is not an option.” So, this phrase became a tagline for the movie, and the title for a book later written by Flight Director Krantz.  The phrase has become one of many iconic statements people take as face value.  We see in the journey of our Christian faith, although we neither advocate nor relish failure. We learn that all failure is not fatal. There are moments in life when the best lessons are learned when we fail, or some missed opportunity stares us in the face. There are times in life we wished our engagement in an action would not have occurred. On other occasions we haveregretted our lack of involvement in some endeavor, which could have added value to our lives. Regardless, there is much to learn from what we, or others, perceive as failure. Dr. David McKenna, a prolific author and former seminary leader said when he surveyed his life, it’s many turns and twists; he realized through God’s grace he “had not failed as much as he had learned,” I have long taken these words to heart. We like to see followers of Jesus as perfect people, but this is not the case. We are earth made, but heaven bound. The disciples of Jesus certainly learned much in their school of discipleship. Often, they were given an assignment, and didn’t succeed as Jesus had instructed them.  But like the disciples, failure can be a learning moment, a new and valuable opportunity!