All of us have dreams we would love to see become reality, yet
many of us are doing little to make them happen. Instead, we settle
for mediocrity and safety. Why? For most of us, the answer is fear,
and in particular, our fear of failure.
All of us have dreams we would love to see become reality, yet many of us are doing little to make them happen. Instead, we settle for mediocrity and safety. Why? For most of us, the answer is fear, and in particular, our fear of failure.
Last week’s column looked at the first of three lessons David shared in Psalm 66: that one of the most effective tools we can use to overcome the fear of failure is failure itself. Realize that failure isn’t the end of the world. Failure isn’t fatal and failure isn’t final. What it is, however, is unavoidable. The question is never “if” I will fail, but how I will respond when I inevitably do fail. The way to overcome the fear of failure is to remove its sting by realizing that our failures can teach us tremendously valuable lessons. Develop an attitude that says, “So what if I try something that doesn’t work? I’ll learn my lesson and move on!”
A second thing David teaches us that will help us overcome our fear of failure is commitment. David was not afraid to fail because he had made a commitment to God. David realized that his relationship with God was sourced in what God had done, which is why he says in verse 16, “let me tell you what God did for me.” He realized that the heart of Christianity is not about what we do for God, but about what God has done for us.
When we don’t grasp this truth, it is easy to view our Christian service as an obligation and feel guilty because we are not doing as much as we could, but when we understand that our service to God is a privilege and not an obligation, we are no longer afraid of failure. We recognize that we belong to God and that even what seems to us to be failure can be used by God to deepen our faith and make us more mature.
The third element that helps us overcome the fear of failure is faith. Most of us won’t admit it, but we often have goals which conflict with God’s goals for our life.
If you’re not convinced of that, consider one of the most common prayer requests: it comes in the area of relationships. We ask for a deepening relationship with our significant other, or we ask God to restore a marriage, or we pray for healing in a relationship with one of our children.
And sometimes it seems those prayers fall on deaf ears. Does that mean God has rejected us? No. It means that God allows us to make choices in our relationships and live with the consequences. Sadly, we often make all sorts of stupid choices, things guaranteed to sabotage a relationship, then when the inevitable happens, we blame God for the failure!
When will we learn that it is not God who is responsible for the messes we find ourselves in? How did Pogo put it? “We have met the enemy and he is us.” The sooner we acknowledge that whatever we sow will determine what we reap, the better off we will be.
When we sow abuse, neglect, indifference, selfishness and the like into our relationships, what should we expect to get in return? So while I can’t go back and undo my stupid mistakes, I can make the commitment from this day forward to sow different kinds of seeds in my relationships; seeds of love, respect, honesty, honor, kindness, faithfulness and sensitivity.
Our faith helps us keep things in perspective. It helps us differentiate between what is real and what isn’t. It enables us to recognize what’s important in life and what isn’t.
David closes Psalm 66 with three great promises by mentioning three things God will never do: he will never ignore you; he will never reject you; and he will never withhold his love from you. If those three aren’t antidotes against the fear of failure, I don’t know what is.
Henry Harris is lead pastor of Rolling Hills Community Church, 330 Tres Pinos Rd. in Hollister. If you have questions or comments, please visit the church Web site at www.rollinghillsfamily.com, e-mail pa*********@****************ly.com or phone (831) 636-5353.
