DOD - 24 Faith to Fail

July 18, 2017

“Faith to Fail”

I love stories.  Today, I would like to tell you a recent story about my family.  This won’t be a standard devotional, but a process of real life that has been sticking with me for the last two weeks.  Come join me!

Last month I went camping with my 12 year old son.  The goal - “The Talk”.  It was such an awesome experience.  But it is what happens at the end of the weekend where this story begins.

As part of his big step into his journey of integrity, I wanted to give him something special that would really mean something to him and help commemorate this important passage into manhood.  Marcie and I got him a really nice wrist watch.  This gift has meant so much to him.  It is his prized possession right now.

Fast forward in the story to last week.  He was riding on a go-cart with the other kids.  He did not want to scratch his watch, so he decided to take it off and put it in his pocket.  After a while he busts into the house and tells his mom, “I can’t find my watch”.  He was in tears.  He was scared.

He had been all over ours and the neighbors’ properties.  20 total acres to lose a watch on.

So as a family we all stop what we are doing and start walking, praying, hoping to find that watch.  Slowly walking, staring at the ground gave me plenty of time to process the ups and downs of my emotions.  The same for my son.  I was at first feeling frustrated that he could be so careless with his watch.  He was devastated that he more than likely lost the possession most valuable to him.  I quickly reminded myself that it was just a watch and I knew that my words to him during this time could either bring life or tear him down.  One minute we have the faith that our prayers will lead us to the watch.  But as time goes on, you start to hear the voices of why your prayers won’t find the watch.

I found the watch on the road.  There wasn’t a scratch on it.  That the watch was not broken, run over, scratched up was a miracle.

My wife and I were really feeling that this was a lesson to be learned.  A really good one.  My son tends to lose things easily.  And with this watch being the most recent victim, it was time for an important talk.

We called my son over and told him to sit down.  We showed him we found the watch.  I will never forget his face and his tears and the meaning they conveyed.  Such tremendous relief, and joy that swallowed up despair and fear.

Over the next several minutes we talked about his propensity to lose things so easily.  We talked about the practical steps he should take in the future and other things that could be learned.

But what we talked about the last several minutes I have either thought about or talked about every day since.

We live our lives constantly trying not to fail.  We are so failure adverse.  We teach and ingrain in our kids on how not to fail, why you shouldn’t fail and by all means, don’t fail!  And we even come to their rescue just so they won’t fail.  But like it or not, it is through failures where we have some of the greater opportunities to learn and grow than if we had been successful.

As we were talking with our son, we were sharing how this experience of failure could be the perfect example of something he could learn from to prevent an even greater failure.

What if my son was allowed to experience a small failure so that somewhere down the line the Spirit prompts him to remember what it was like to lose his watch so that he thinks twice about putting his wedding ring in his pocket only to find he lost it.

What if we started looking at our failures as opportunities just like this.  What if instead of resisting and dodging failure with all that is within us, we started seeing opportunities in failure.  What if God is saying, “Son, I love you enough to not save you from every failure.  I love you so much that I will allow you to fail in this small thing so that you will not fail in the next big thing!”

That’s is where I am at now.  I keep thinking about it.  I know that this experience was important to my son, but I am convinced that I am learning just as much as him through this.