Many of us have seen the Pinterest fails posted on social media.I’ve failed at many a craft from Pinterest. I am thankful for whiteout and erasers to cover my mistakes. We all fail. You have failed and I have failed. And guess what? We will probably fail at something we try to do today!
‘Fail’ is a four letter word in a world of perfectionism. I’m not sure when or where it started but many in my generation are afraid to fail, including me. Maybe it came from NASA and the slogan, ‘Failure is not an option.’ Somehow it is ingrained in me that I cannot mess up, I must make good grades, get a good job, provide for myself, etc etc. However, life is not perfect. The only perfect thing about life is God’s love and the only perfect person was Jesus.
Everyone fails. Thomas Edison failed many times at creating a lightbulb, Michael Jordan didn’t make his high school basketball team, Abraham Lincoln lost his first election, Jay-Z couldn’t get signed to a record label, Henry Ford struggled to start a successful business. Yet, these are all men who have made history. If they had succeeded on the first try, would we still know their names?
I have talked to several people over the past year back home. One conversation has stuck with me since Asia. A friend back home was about to start a new job, and she said, ‘I think it will be a safe place to fail.’
A SAFE PLACE TO FAIL?!?
Thoughts raced through my mind. Why would you want to fail? Who would let you? What kind of work can you fail at and still have a job?
However, the more I have thought about failure, the more I want it. Not just in a job but in life. I want to be able to fail my friends and they still forgive me. I want to fail Jesus and know He still loves me. I want to fail at something in work and still keep my job. Why do I want to seek so much failure? Because I will learn from it. There is not much learned from perfectionism, but in failure there is so much to learn. I have learned about grace, mercy, love, forgiveness and so much more.
I know and understand I am not perfect. I know many of y’all have seen my imperfections as well. But I love learning! And by failure I am able to love more. All I am looking for is a safe place to do so. Please know I will not fail on purpose, I will try my hardest- always giving 110% to do my best; but if I fall short help me to find the lesson in that failure.
And those men I mentioned earlier who failed? We can thank them for lightbulbs, the number 23 will always be known as MJ’s number, Abraham Lincoln became president and wrote the Emancipation Proclamation, Jay-Z started his own record label and is known worldwide, and Henry Ford created Ford Motor Company.
Here’s to failure!
