James McReynolds
Richard Niebuhr said of faith: 'Faith is the attitude of the self in its existence toward all existences that surround it, as being relied upon or to be suspected. It is the attitude that appears in all the wariness and confidence of life as it moves about among the living. It is fundamentally trust or distrust in the being itself.' (H. Richard Niebuhr, The Responsible Self, p. 118)People have suffered and enjoyed, lost and won, doubted and believed, regressed and progressed on their faith journey. Ask anyone who has faith, has known doubt. Christian writers possess quiet confidence. This writer sees faith as the complete trust in the God of the gospels. Each human experience is different, but the points of trust as the same.We shun failure because we fear that revealing our weaknesses and imperfections will cause us to be unacceptable, unlovable, and of no use, unmarketable. Failure exposes our vulnerability. Failure is part of humanity. Being human challenges us to recognize life as a gift. Difficulties and failures have essential things to offer us. Children learn to walk by trying, failing, and trying again.Mistakes, errors, failures are ways to learn to live life more fully. God proceeds to stay with us when we are raw and vulnerable, moving in our being with deep care and gentleness. Failure can lead us to the light.Trust and mistrust are ways we relate to our parents and others beginning early in life and running deeply all the years of our lives. I enjoyed Jennifer Lawrence’s movie, Joy. Lawrence plays a lovely young woman who believes in our self. She envisions and creates a simple mop. Nobody thinks it will ever be a success. She is strong and despite her many disappointments and pain, she gains faith and success. Failure was her friend. She acknowledge he failure without becoming trapped by it.Reflection enables us to remain responsible, spiritual, emotional, and practical. Failure offers us an opportunity to look and ask and delve into who we are. How do we desire to live life. We don’t feel valued by our culture, church or community, or even ourselves. God’s love and grace helps us love ourselves. Loving ourselves includes struggling with jealousy and envy toward others whose lives appear easier and more successful than ours. We reflect alone and with others. Sharing experiences of failure with people who know and love us provides encouragement in our times of darkness.Failure reminds us to look back with gratitude for God’s faithfulness in the past. We look forward in anticipation to the eternal joy that can become ours. Failure invites us to gather bot the past and future into the present moment that we live fully and faithfully now.The challenge of failure is for us to remain faithful despite our fears, in the middle of the grief, loss, and pain, embarrassment, insecurity, and disappointment.We become even further graced as we grow with compassion, wisdom, and love. If you think you have failed completely with no hope, please read this book, and give a copy to others.Remember Jesus failed. We live on this side of the resurrection, so we miss the anguish and pain of the failure that proceeded it. The world would think that the life and ministry of Jesus were failures. He did not change the hearts of all those who heard him. He was not the type of messiah that brought the reign of God on earth. Jesus even failed to gain the complete loyalty of his disciples. They denied any association with him.Jesus died as a common criminal. He died lonely, in much pain, ridiculed, and taunted. The challenge of faith and faithfulness is to hold that fruit of the Spirit within us, whatever life brings. That is the reality of faith.
