The Precipice of Failure

 Email This Post  Print This Post

The word FAIL is enjoying a ‘wonderful resurrection’ in the english language these days, especially with the younger generation.  I’m not sure why that is and if it’s a reflection of the cynicism of our culture of if we’re just trying to laugh at ourselves and each other and not take life so seriously.

For whatever reason, it is fashionable to remark when something, or somebody, has gone horribly wrong; to make sure that if no one else knows it that it is burned into the ‘perpetrator’s’ consciousness that they have transgressed and fallen below the level of what is acceptable and effective.

Sometimes the loudest voice reminding us of where we have messed up doesn’t come from outside, but from within.

I’ve been going through a Bible reading plan this year, generously supplied, free of charge, from the Bible League of Canada (www.bibleleague.ca).  This plan assists the reader in systematically spending twenty minutes a day reading different chapters in the Bible, concluding an oddessy through the entire Word of God by the time December 31 rolls around.  I’ve read the Bible from beginning to end several times - well, except for the first time, when I skipped the Song of Solomon…

Anyway, recently I was following the story of Moses, which is quite different biblically then we see portrayed in Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments.”  Most of us are familiar with this Hebrew baby, found by Pharoah’s daughter, on the run as a fugitive for murdering an abusive Egyptian, his incredible and life changing encounter with God, and his subsequent return to the land of Egypt to serve as God’s instrument to set the Israelites free.

The adventure of Moses’ life did not end as he led his people from slavery to the promise of the Promised Land.  Moses no longer had to contend with Pharoah’s hardened heart but now he had to contend with the grumbling of those who he was leading to safety and freedom.

This part of Moses’ story, and the story of the journey of the Israelites, reaches a desperate point in Exodus 32.  Despite the fact that a golden calf, or golden creature of any kind, had helped the Israelites up this point - which is significant by the way, because the golden calf which was created was a product of the resources of the people and not the resources of God - His chosen decided that they would fashion for themselves a god of their own, which would allow them to do what they want, and which looked like they wanted it to look, even though for all of its earthly brilliance it was as dead and as quiet as any other useless piece of twisted metal.  These people had been the recipients of God’s supernatural care and still did not return gratituous praise and worship to Him.  They decided to spend their energies on themselves.

So, consider that you’re Moses.  You are the leader of these people.  You’ve been entrusted with their care and direction.  You go away to have some intense and much needed time with God and you return to find that those whom you have led have gone horribly astray.  This situation has ‘FAIL’ all over it.  Maybe that’s why Moses uttered the words “But now, please forgive their sin - but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written” (Exodus 32:32).

This is one of my favourite prayers in the Bible because at first glance it tells me that Moses’ care for his people was such that if they could not find forgiveness from God, that he, Moses, would voluntarily submit himself to the same fate that awaited those who had so blatantly turned against the Most High God.  I wonder, however, if this was also a prayer in which there was more than a little heartache and pain on Moses’ part, that his leadership was unable to prevent such an outbreak of rebellion which was a putrid smell in God’s nostrils.

Perhaps this story speaks to leaders more than anyone else.  Who among us, whether we’ve led a sports team, a business venture, a ministry, or a family, hasn’t at one point or another been so ashamed and upset with the behaviour of those who are in our care that we can’t help but put it back on ourselves and feel the invisible words emblazened on our foreheads “FAIL”?

Left to our own devices, the book would be closed, and we wouldn’t find our names in it anymore.  We would be outside of the story of the victorious and successful and put into the waste basket with the other also - rans and has beens and ‘almost was’s’.

But that’s not God.  He is a restorer - much more so now that Jesus has come into the picture and that today we enjoy a dispensation, or time period of history, in which God’s grace is extended unconditionally to ‘whosoever will.’  We may find ourselves at the cliff, sometimes, afraid that there is no alternative but to jump, to be forgotten, and to abandon our task.  He, however, retrieves us from that cliff and brings us back, turns us around, strengthens us, gets us back on track with life and with Him.

If you follow Moses’ life - and for that fact, Elijah’s as well - you’ll notice that while these two men, who were witnesses to God’s incredible glory, both came up ever so short of seeing God’s ends on earth fully realized in their lifetimes.  Both of them were taken up to be with God, both arguably having finished their course on this earth, both of whom would be with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9:3 - 5).  Despite their shortcomings, they obviously played, and according to prophetic writings will play, integral parts in the history of our world as we have, and will, know it.

The truth of the matter is, despite our shortcomings, our ‘epic fails’, we are integral in the history of the world as we have, and will know it.  The difference that our presence makes in people’s everyday lives, be it our parents, friends, school teachers, siblings, neighbours, co - workers, and especially fellow believers, is insurmountable and more than we could know or imagine.  The world really is a richer place because people like us - people who fail, have to dust themselves off, and get back in the race - are more valued and fondly thought of then we think.

Comments

• Search for:

• Event Calendar

  September 2010

  M	T	W	T	F	S	S
  		1	2	3	4	5
  6	7	8	9	10	11	12
  13	14	15	16	17	18	19
  20	21	22	23	24	25	26
  27	28	29	30	EC

  « Aug

  Oct »

• Join Our Mailing List

  Email Address :

   Loading...