Psalm 31:1 “In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me!”
“If at first you don’t succeed, have some cake.” One of my students recently began her speech with this quote from the book, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. Her opening caught my attention and brought a smile to my face.
What a lovely thought of how to deal with our failures. Rather than incessantly beating ourselves over the head when we mess up, why don’t we dismiss those disappointments and celebrate. View them as Bob Goff writes, not as definers of who we are, but as informers to help us grow.
We have bigger fish to fry than getting stuck in our failures. God has a wild, wonderful purpose for us. But we are fallen creatures, so living out that purpose requires confronting our many imperfections. It can be downright ugly. But the Lord—who by the way, never expects perfection from us—will help us through. Always.
David never forgot the Lord was his refuge. When he felt the shame of failure and betrayal, he didn’t just shrug his shoulders and return to the sheep pen. When circumstances filled him with grief and it felt like his sin was crushing his bones, he cried out to God. And when everyone rejected him, and his enemies plotted to take his life, he ran to God (Psalm 31:10-14).
Running to God, maybe crawling to God if that’s all we can manage, is the most proactive response we can have when we feel like failures. David’s troubles not only drove him to discover more about God’s lovingkindness and mercy, they taught him a few things about himself. Acknowledging his failures paved the way for him to humbly deal with issues keeping him from becoming all God intended him to be.
Only as we face our mistakes and failures, do we recognize our deepest need. No one enjoys the process. It hurts. But in the end, it makes us more like the One who promises to redeem our sins. Every. Single. One. And that, friend, is reason to celebrate. Even have some cake.
.