The Wayward Way by Taylor Field

Author:Taylor Field
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Hope Publishers
Published: 2017-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

TAKEAWAY:

You can let go of a dream without giving in.

Diminishment in your life brings paradoxical expansions.

We have a different wilderness in the morning of our life than in the afternoon of our life.

Perhaps your wilderness will help you become a senex.

6 ————————————————————

FAILING OVER SUCCEEDING

In God’s economy, nothing is wasted. Through failure, we learn a lesson in humility, which is probably needed, painful though it is.

—As Bill Sees It, Alcoholics Anonymous

Look where all your work has gotten you. At first they just hated you. Then they called you a traitor. Then they had you beaten. Then they threw you in a dungeon. You were starving, weren’t you? When you finally met the king, you had to beg, not much of a prophet after all, and you were moved to the palace prison with a little bit of food. You couldn’t sink any lower, could you? Oh, yes you could. Before you knew what was happening, your enemies pulled you out of prison and dropped you into a pit that was about twenty feet deep. It was supposed to hold water, but all it had at the bottom was mud. What a great image of success you are, sitting there in the dark, sinking deeper and deeper into the mud. How do you feel now, Jeremiah?

SITTING IN MUD

It is not only failure; it is the fear of failure. Deep within, we want to be recognized as successful, somehow, in some way. It is that impending lack of success that is the killer. We’ve talked about some of the things that can accompany the wilderness—shame, insignificance, humiliation, bewilderment, and loss. All of these experiences point to failure.

Jeremiah wasn’t in a desert, but he was in a kind of wilderness. What does the world look like from the bottom of a dark, muddy, fifteen- to twenty-foot deep pit? Wouldn’t it just be easier to say the right things and be honored like the other prophets? What was the use of all this strong talk when the people and the king did not respond? Jeremiah must have felt like such a loser (see Jeremiah 38:1–13).

What is it in us that makes us want so badly to look like we are succeeding? We try to hold up the pretense of worldly success, even in ministry, until we can no longer pretend, covered in mud, at the bottom of a pit. Obvious failure.

Part of my life has been spent listening to people as they spin their pipe dreams. They are in the darkest of pits, yet they are explaining to me how a film contract is just around the corner or how a court settlement will come any day or how they are not really addicted to cocaine, despite how things look right now. It is hard to be honest when facing our own failure. We all find ways to try to avoid the facts.

On the other hand, I have also seen people who would not be judged successes by the world, and yet they have a quiet confidence about them, steadily going about their business.

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