Making the Most of Failure

My roommate passed on to me something that she had read and it really made me think about things a little differently. So I'm passing it on to you all. It is a little write up entitled "Making the Most of Failure" by Graham Cooke. If you want to read the whole thing go to http://www.crosbieandwilma.com/prophCooke2004.htm.

Cooke starts by pointing out that God loves us failures and all. He even choses those who seem to be the biggest failures to represent Himself (see 1 Corinthians 1:26-31). I'll quote some of what he wrote.
He did not want the beauty of His nature and the glory of His kingdom solely to be represented by by the great, the good and the clever. He did not want the Who's Who of humanity to portray His own magnificence. He does not need to be seen in the right places with the right people. Jesus was criticized viciously for hanging out with the very people society detested. He chose to become despised and rejected. God does not have an image problem. God chooses people people who were despised as being stupid, by people who should have known better. He accepted people who would require lots of training just to be normal, let alone successful. (I really like that last bit.)

Then Cooke goes on to say that God allows us to fail (obviously). God intends for us to use these failures to learn. It is a given that we all will fail. The question is will we fail "successfully" or not. I'll quote some of Cooke's ideas on what it means to fail successfully.
We fail successfully when we discover that God wants us to love the learning that exists in every situation. . . That learning produces the fruit of self control which in turn guarantees lasting change.
We fail successfully when we realize that God is not even remotely embarrassed by our weaknesses. . . The One who loves us best, knows us best. God does not get disillusioned with us, because He had no illusions in the first place!

He sets some criteria for failing unsuccessfully too.
We fail badly when we imagine that failure should not be part of our inheritance. . . Does He use our failure to improve out relationship with Him? Everything God does is relational. Every circumstance can be turned around so that we discover the height, depth, length and breadth of God's love.

Those are just a few of his points. He makes some other really good ones. Here is one more I really liked.

God's glory is not enhanced by our success nor can it be tarnished by our failure.