Religion: A Pastor Ponders

Hurray for The failures!

By Pastor William Jenkins

July 1 9, 2007

Have you ever been to one of those “Success” workshops? I have been to a few and they are helpful. One day, however, I realized that the most successful people at the workshops I attended were the ones who walked away with my registration fee.

Success is often overrated, so I say, “Three cheers for the failures!” Strange, you say? To some extent it is. There are two kinds of failures. First, there is the passive failure. This is the person who never tries; who has no motivating dream, who never dares or takes a risk, who is afraid to fail. Do not applaud this person; pity this person.

Then there is the active failure. This is the person with the guts to leave the ruts, who has learned the art of getting up when knocked down. This is the person who dares to dream and pursues it, the one who is willing to run the risk of reach, who is not intimidated by failure and refuses to believe the negative report about themselves. This is the person to applaud, not because they are successful, sometimes they are not, but because they tried. These positive types of failures have rebound power and come-back potential. We can never succeed at anything until we are willing to fail at something.

I’m going to try to play the game, and play it hard, and play it fair.
I may not win, but just the same I’m gonna try to do my share.
I may not always meet the test as well as some more clever guy,
But while my heart beats in my chest, I’m gonna try.

I’m gonna struggle to be kind, and not grow hard of face and eye;
I’ll flop at times. But never mind, I’m gonna try.
I’ll hitch my wagon to a star, and set my goal up in the sky;
And though I may not get that far, I’m certainly gonna try.
- Anonymous

Failure need not be fatal. I have failed more often in my life than I have succeeded. That could be a real “downer”; however, when I consider how much farther along I am because of the things I tried, I understand that each time I failed, I failed forward. That’s not so bad.

League City United Methodist Church is located at 1411 Main Street (FM 518), one block east of Interstate 45. For information, call the church offices at 281-332-1557 or visit the website at

HYPERLINK - http://www.lcumc.org