We pray to God… that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. 2
Corinthians 13:7.

‘We regret we are unable to give you the weather. We rely on weather reports from
the airport, which is closed because of the weather. Whether we are able to give you the
weather tomorrow depends on the weather.’

That, says Stephen Pile in The Book of Heroic Failures (Macmillan, 1979) is an accurate
transcript of a news bulletin in a Middle Eastern country. Pile’s book is a salute to
spectacular human failure. ‘Success’, he writes, ‘is overrated. Everyone
craves it despite daily proof that humans’ true genius lies in quite the opposite
direction. Incompetence is what we are good at…’

Failure is inevitable in our broken world. While we should not seek failure or despise
success, a Christian is called to be faithful, not necessarily successful. Jesus was
tempted to be a ‘successful’ Messiah, but chose rather to be a faithful and
obedient servant. Those who cheered him on Palm Sunday had to learn he was not on his way
to a throne in Jerusalem, but to a cross on Golgotha. (But the cross was the greatest
victory in human history.)

In the sunshine and in the shadows, through the calm and the stormy days, when life is
good and when it’s hard, when things go well and when they fall apart, may I know
deep within my spirit that God is still smiling, and all will be well. Amen.

Rowland Croucher <>