Spiritual Life @ Christianity.com
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“Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies” (2 Cor. 1:3).
I’ll never forget the time I went out to eat with a new
friend from our college fellowship. After we had each shared some
of our background with the Lord, my friend remarked, “You
sure have failed a lot!” That was over 20 years ago, and
I have failed many more times since then. But I have also had
many successes, because I keep getting up again when failure occurs.
The secret of being a successful leader is not so much in avoiding
all failure as in learning how to get up once you have made a
mistake. Paul saw that leaders must not only be those who have
experienced the Lord as “the God of all comfort,”
but also as “the Father of mercies.” While we need
comfort when we are afflicted or go through trials, we need mercy
when we sin or when we have failed.
As was his custom, Paul begins 2 Corinthians with a reference
to God’s grace and peace (2 Cor. 1:2). These are foundational
to the life of any leader, or any Christian for that matter. As
the God of all comfort, the Lord imparts His peace. As the Father
of mercies, He brings His grace to those who have fallen.
Paul was painfully aware of his own failures. He referred to
himself as the chief of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15) and at one point
cried out to God, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver
me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24) He never forgot
that before his conversion he had been a persecutor of the church.
The Rebound Factor
Few other qualities are as vital to successful leadership as
the ability to rebound from failure. This is shown in the lives
of leaders throughout the pages of Scripture:
Abraham made a terrible mistake
when he went along with his wife’s idea that he have a child
by her servant, Hagar. Nevertheless, God later fulfilled His promise
to give Abraham and Sarah their own offspring, and Isaac was born.
Moses had to overcome his failed
attempt to deliver his people from Egypt when he was age 40. At
age 80 he was given a renewed call at the burning bush, and the
Israelites were ultimately delivered.
Samuel apparently did a terrible
job of raising his children. Still, God used him mightily.
David had to rebound from horrendous
personal failures: adultery, deception and murder. Nonetheless,
he will be remembered not as a failure but as a man after God’s
heart (Acts 13:32).
Peter, only days after denying
the Lord three times, received a new commission from the Lord
to feed His sheep.
John Mark deserted the apostolic
team of Barnabas and Paul, but later rebounded to write the Gospel
of Mark.
This list is only the beginning! Various failures could be cited
in the lives of other heroes of the faith as well—but God
gave them the grace to bounce back and ultimately fulfill His
purposes. Other than the Lord Jesus, there is no perfect leader,
so our only hope is to learn to rebound quickly from our failures.
These rebounds will not come by our own strength but by God’s
resurrection power—“the power of an indestructible
life” as the writer of Hebrews calls it (Heb. 7:16 NAS).
Copyright 2000 Jim Buchan
Jim Buchan has a diverse background, having been a pastor, an attorney
and the editor of
Ministries Today magazine and
The
Morning Star Journal. He now has a writing and speaking ministry
that takes him across the U.S. and to many foreign countries. This
article is excerpted from Jim's new book,
Walking the Leadership
Highway—Without Becoming Road Kill! Visit his Web site
at
crosslinknet.org .
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.