“Mr. Weston, do you have the answer?” my teacher asked with a knowing smile. He knew as well as I did that I did not only not have the answer I barely understood the question. Stammering, I replied, “No… ahh, maybe,…. I am not sure.” As I looked at him there was an unreadable look on his face, he quickly moved on to a sure thing, posing the question to one of the brains of our class. I sat in a quandary, how was I going to pass a class, I had fallen so far behind. The only answer I could come up with was, cheat.
As class ended my teacher called to me as I was heading out the door, “John, can I speak with you for a moment?” I was shocked, had he just called me by my first name? I approached his desk with trepidation. Again, I was surprised to see that he was almost smiling with a look that could only be taken as sympathy. He spoke softly, “John, how are you doing? I can see you are lost. What is going on? You were one of my top students last semester. Now you seem to be completely disconnected.” I struggled to meet his gaze, I lowered my head and shrugged, “I am just a bit behind this semester. I have a lot on my plate, but I will catch up.” I said with a confidence I did not feel. He was silent and I could feel his normal coldness envelop him, “Well, Mr. Weston, you better, there is a good chance your will fail this course and if so you will need to take it again!” With that he dismissed me with a wave of his hand.
For the first time in my life I was on the verge of failure. For most of my years school had been an easy thing for me. I breezed through history, english and other humanity classes. I did struggle a bit with math and science but still had passed all with better than average grades and never once felt the pressure of failure. But now, it was all but assured and with it my dreams of being a newspaper journalist could be in danger or at the very least postponed.
As human beings, failure seems to be one of the hardest things we find ourselves dealing with. It seems to be in our nature to want to succeed and I believe success is something God seeks for us also. But how are we to judge either failure or success? There seems to be two standards, one set by the world we live in and one set by the guidelines of God’s word.
The worldly view seems to always judge our failure or success by the amount of wealth we accrue through our lives. Or by the prestige we build in our careers or occupations. I don’t know how often when I get into a conversation one of the first question asked is, “What do you do for a living?” It is almost like the answer to that question is how I am to be judged for the remainder of that conversation or our relationship. There have been times when I have answered, “I am an Ironworker”, that I could see a loss of interest in the person who I had been talking with. The view of my being success or a failure was judged by that person’s opinion of my career choice. And I have noticed now that I have retired, it can lead to even more judgmental situations. The world sees us for what we have, where we live or what we do. But what about God?
I think to answer that we only need to look at how He chose to show Himself in human form to the world, in Jesus. You know, he could have come into this world as a king, living in a palace, setting laws and having the admiration of everyone. But that was not how it was foretold in the book of Isaiah, listen to what he said, “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.” (Isaiah 53:3) Think of that, the Savior, the Holy One of God, chose to come into this world so low that he would be held in low esteem.
Not a king but a carpenter. And, yeah, the people of his day did judge him by his career choice. In the Gospel of Mark, we see people could not accept his words or deeds because of his worldly success ratio, “Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters with us, and they took offense at him?” (Mark 6:3). Despised and rejected, the Savior of the world. Yet he found no sorrow in this, He knew His true success was bound into doing the will of His Father, “Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” (John 4:34).
So where does that leave us as followers of Christ, how should we find our success or failure. I can see it no other way, then as Jesus prayed as He faced the ultimate career choice, death on the cross, “Not mine, but thy will be done.” Really our success can never be based on what we accrue here, because this is not our home, Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven….” (Matthew 6:20)
There is so much more to say on this topic but maybe a few words from the Apostle Paul will suffice, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” (Colossians 3: 1-4) Today, can be the day when we do just that, chose the things of above, if we do He has promised all other things will be given to us, and I know I can trust that. I think maybe next time someone asks what I do for a living, I will say, “I live for He who died to save me.” Sounds like a successful career choice to me!
I did not pass that course, in fact I withdrew from school and began my career as an Ironworker. I see now God had other plans for my success. And I can sit here today knowing through all my failures or successes, the man who was despised and rejected, now a king had my back. How cool is that?
Blessings John
7/12/17
Failure or success…Jesus shows the ways
