Stephen Pile has written a book titled The Book of Failures. It’s got unbelievable stuff in it. Like that time back in 1978 during the firemen’s strike in England. It made possible one of the greatest animal rescue attempts of all time. Valiantly, the British Army had taken over emergency firefighting. On January 14 they were called out by an elderly lady in South London to rescue her cat. They arrived with impressive haste, very cleverly and carefully rescued the cat, and started to drive away. But the lady was so grateful she invited the squad of heroes in for tea. Driving off later with fond farewells and warm waving of arms, they ran over her cat and killed it.
I would rather fail in a cause that will ultimately succeed than to succeed in a cause that will ultimately fail.
Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed, whatever follies I have witnessed in private and public life, have been the consequence of action without thought.
I had a friend who used to call me on the phone on Monday mornings. I’d pick up the phone and this minister would say, “Hello, this is God. I have a gift for you today. I want to give you the gift of failing. Today you do not have to succeed. I grant that to you.” Then he would hang up. I would sit there for ten minutes staring at the wall.
The first time I couldn’t believe it. It was really the gospel. God’s love means it’s even okay to fail. You don’t have to be the greatest thing in the world. You can just be you.
C.S. Lewis, in The Screwtape Letters, vividly describes Satan’s strategy: He gets Christians to become preoccupied with their failures; from then on, the battle is won.
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