The Worst of Failures

"Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure." - George Edward Woodberry

This quote reminded me of a couple experiences I've had. While living in Managua I felt I should do some teaching and support of worship ministries in Bluefields on the "Atlantic coast, but I never did because I never had the money. How wrong I was! Later God challenged me as he let me know that it wasn't that the worship seminars never materialized because I didn't have the money. The reality of the situation was that I never had the money because I never followed through with the worship seminars. Mmmmm.

A few years later, as I began to perceive the need to do a series of praise, worship and prayer meetings in 8 different cities of Nicaragua, I remembered the situation with Bluefields and God's response to my excuse. For this ministry project I needed a very large sum of money and I needed it fast. I decided that I was not going to fail by not trying. I was going to go for it and if it resulted in defeat, at least I was going to have tried. I wasn't going "to die" lying down.

We were not defeated, but even if we had not been able to achieve the complete project we wouldn't have been failures, because we had walked with God and we had connected with His grace and purpose. As George Woodberry said, "Not to have tried is the true failure." The end of the story is that all of the time, the money, and the participants came together and the whole project, Proyecto Josafat, was a God moment. All the needs were met and we visited eight cities in the four corners of Nicaragua. People were touched and we impacted the history of Nicaragua.

God is waiting for his sons and daughters to move by faith, step out of the boat and walk on the water. I am sure that if more of us would take this risk there would be fewer and fewer failures in the Christian world. Instead, we would see the true Kingdom of Heaven advance in greater and more spectacular ways because nothing is to hard for the LORD.