The new year always brings the opportunity for new beginnings. We can turn the page on the previous year’s shortcomings, and start a new chapter of our life. We can crinkle up the paper of our mistakes and 86 them into the trash bin. We can rip the sheet of failures out of our book and promptly put them into the shredder. We can do these things…but should we? Life is built around successful results founded through unsuccessful attempts. In other words, we find that when we take the time to examine our failures, shortcomings, or whatever you may want to call them, we can learn and be better next time. That is one of the things I love about history…looking back at men and women, well-known and obscure, those that made great impacts and those whose actions were not so dynamic…and understanding that they did not let their failures define who they were. They made the necessary effort to try again with the vision of success in their mind’s eye.
Our nation’s story is written in the crinkled pages piled up in the trash can. There is the Continental Army and its many miscues on the battlefield. It is a wonder that the American amateurs won the war over British professional soldiers. They faced defeat time and time again, yet never gave up…successful result through unsuccessful attempts. If those farmers and merchants laid down their arms and went home we might be speaking with a British accent today. As Jefferson sat down to write the most important document in United States’ history, he found himself starting over, crossing out words, adding others for more effect. We know there were several versions that were penned before the 56 men signed their names. In the end, we have our founding document…successful result through unsuccessful attempts. Lincoln ran for political offices numerous times. After an abysmal record of trying for various levels of offices, he was nominated and elected President of the United States – except that before he was even in office, seven states broke from the United States, and another four left within a couple of months of him moving into the White House…not very United. The Civil War is full of each side’s unsuccessful attempts at getting their desires realized. The North eventually won, but in the early years of the war they suffered way more losses than wins…successful result through unsuccessful attempts (a lot of unsuccessful attempts – and by a lot, I mean A LOT).
Heavier-than-air, controlled flight had many challengers. The list is a long chronicle of failure after failure. Broken wood, bent metal, lives lost…all tell the tragic story of trying to be history’s first. Then Orville and Wilbur cracked the code. A couple of bicycle repairmen…the Wrights, had the right stuff. Thomas Edison failed thousands of times before getting a working lightbulb. Watching a Food Channel special recently, I was reminded of how Milton Hershey lost nearly everything because he could not get the chocolate recipe he envisioned. He hired, and subsequently fired, scientist after scientist when they could not produce what he wanted. And then one day it happened. One of them created the result he was looking for, and the rest, they say, is history. And if that isn’t enough, how many times have we watched Elmer Fudd try and nab that wabbit? Or Wile E. Coyote (“Eatibus Anythingus”) trying to catch and eat the Roadrunner (“Hot-roddicus supersonicus”). All tell the story of successful results (well, not Elmer or Wile E.) through unsuccessful attempts.
And then there is us. We have all experienced failure. I remember all the times in the Air Force when I awaited the results of promotion to the next higher rank. Would this year be the year? Or would I be subjected to another year of studying and then waiting for results. I was blessed to achieve the highest enlisted rank of Chief Master Sergeant, but there were many failures along the way…successful results through unsuccessful attempts. You too have faced success…and failure. The thing is, when we have failed, came up short, missed the mark, whatever label you put on it, you have a choice. You can stare at that trash can full of crumpled papers of past failures, or you can gather yourself, set your compass true, and get after it again, knowing that somewhere along this path called life, you will find that success for which you are striving. You might have to brush aside those wadded up papers of unsuccessful attempts, but trust me, success is there.
Let me close with this. The Apostle Peter faced failure after failure himself. Remember, Peter is the one who spent all night fishing and catching nothing, and when Jesus shows up he doesn’t want to throw the nets out again. I mean, he’s been at it all night and he is exhausted. But he does…reluctantly…and catches so many fish that his nets begin to break. Remember, Peter is the one who steps out of the boat in faith, walks on water, but then realizes that in the natural world humans aren’t supposed to be able to stand on a liquid substance. Remember, Peter is the one who will never deny Jesus, and then when the words are still fresh in his mind, he does just that…not once, not twice, but three times. Peter could have sat down and stared at his personal pile of failures in that overflowing trash can, and for a moment he did. But he knew what we know. Successful results come through unsuccessful attempts.
Faith, Leadership, and History 