Michael Jordan, the famous American basketball player did an advert for Nike some years back. In this advert he detailed some of the massive failures in his life.
This included more than 9000 shots missed, losing almost 300 games and being trusted to take the winning shot 26 times and missing. With such failures under his belt one might think that they would have crushed the man. At the end of the advert Jordan is quoted as saying: I have failed over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed.
Failing, therefore is not the measure of a person. If Michael Jordan had given up because he failed at times, he would not have gone on to become such a great player. It was not the fact that he failed at something that mattered in the end, but how he dealt with that failure. He kept going. Those failures taught him valuable lessons and the more he learned the better he became. Like Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb said, I have not failed. Ive just found 10 000 ways that wont work. We need to realise that failing is an important part of our development. In fact one could argue that people like Jordan and Edison failed upwards, their failures eventually leading to great success.
You see, Michael Jordan eventually won a litany of awards and in 1999 was named the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century.
WHEN TIMES ARE TOUGH
Just like Michael Jordan, all of us face failure at times. It could be in our jobs, or marriages, or friendships, or we could experience failing health. When these things happen we need to remember that when we fail, although we might not have control over the event itself, we do have control over what we do and what we believe. For Christians there is much better news than that. We can also take enormous comfort that God is ultimately in control and that he loves us deeply. For us, failing upwards not only involves succeeding but also recognising that we are able to do so because of Christ in us.
Case in point was the 2008/2009 subprime lending debacle and the massive worldwide economic crisis that followed. This event led to tens of thousands of businesses closing their doors and retrenching their staff. South Africa was not immune to it and in March of 2009 I went to work one day and found that the company I worked for was facing bankruptcy and had to retrench its entire staff including me!
What followed was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. After the message hit home that there will be no pay check at the end of the month questions like Will we be able to buy food? or How will we be able to pay the bond at the end of the month? became the order of the day. We were set to lose everything…. our house, our car, our furniture and our good credit rating. Everything that we had worked for so hard was now doomed to failure because of events outside of our control and not of our own making.
I remember standing in the unemployment line that wrapped half way around the city block where the Department of Labour was situated and noticing that most people looked hopeless. For many it looked like it was the end of the road. I wondered how many of them would find a job in time.
One would think that this was one of the most emotionally trying times of my life. One would think that getting to the end of the month with no food in the house would be problematic and that phoning the bank to inform them that there would be no bond payment this month would be scary, that the prospects for a white male in a society that was struggling to address the wrongs of apartheid, meant that opportunity was scarce and options were limited.
But in fact I did not lose one nights sleep over the issue. Why?
Because God was in control.
He has never stopped being in control. Philippians 4:6-7 tells us: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Peace…that was what I felt. It was weird in one sense because my head kept telling me that I should be panicking and yet I was calm, because I knew that God was ultimately in control. I remember standing in the kitchen talking to my wife and discussing how we would feel if we lost everything. We both agreed that if it happened it would be ok…because we knew that God would never leave us nor forsake us.
I thought about it long and hard and decided that this was the ideal time to start my own business. What did I have to lose after all? To be honest that first six months was tough and although I was getting an unemployment cheque, it did not cover all our expenses. In order to keep head above water we had to cancel most of our insurance and medical aid and had to cut back drastically on spending.
Then one month with two weeks to go, I realised that I had not done any work that month and that there would not be enough money to pay the bills. I prayed about it and trusted that God would provide. A couple of days later I got a phone call from someone we had previously invited to our house for a braai. At the braai I had told them that I build websites for a living and– surprise surprise – their company needed a new website. With days to spare I managed to finish the site and got enough money to pay our bills that month.
But that was not the only instance where God provided for us. There were numerous times. One time, we had very little food left in the house with more than a week before the unemployment cheque was due. We lived more than 90kms from Cape Town (where the rest of my family stays). Out of the blue we get a phone call from my aunt who invited us to dinner.
A huge favour?
We had to decide whether we drive out 180kms worth of petrol for dinner, or whether to stay home and see what the bare cupboards could offer. We opted for the dinner. When we got there, it turned out that they were leaving on an overseas trip and that this was their farewell dinner. At the end of the evening, as we were leaving to go home, my aunt called me to one side and asked if I could do her a huge favour. She explained that they had a lot of food in their cupboards and fridge that they did not want to go to waste, and if we would be so kind as to take it off their hands. Can you believe it…enough food for more than two weeks…for free and I did not tell them that we had no food at home!
Isnt God amazing! In Philippians 4:19 (ESV) we read: And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. And that is exactly what God did. When we least expected it and when things were at their most desperate he supplied us with what we needed.
So you might think to yourself that everything was easy from there onward…well you would be wrong. Exactly a year later, my wife got retrenched from her job and we faced the same problems all over again. This time it was even worse because my business had only started becoming a viable financial source of income and we had relied heavily on her salary.
It took her six months and whole different set of miracles to get a job and stabilise our income. In fact it got so bad that had she not gotten a job when she did, we would not have had enough money to pay our debts. Through all this God was faithful. He never let us down.
Even though people, jobs and circumstances failed us, Christ turned those failures into a testimony of his greatness. We did not fail and spiral downwards, we failed upwards!
You see God loves you and me. More so than we would love a pet like our cat or dog. He loves us likes sons and daughters and promises that he will care for us. In Mathew 6:25-26 we read: Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear…(verse 26) Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
So when times are tough and things feel like they are falling apart, remember that the Creator of the universe loves you and cares for you. Dont worry about failing downwards. Rather pray that God helps you fail upwards!