Articles & Devotionals
Failures
More than five hundred engineers and scientist were crammed into an auditorium meant for half as many occupants. The atmosphere was almost electric as they waited for the presentation to begin. The crowd hushed as the key note speaker walked into the room.
Ten years after his retirement, Kelly Johnson had returned to Lockheed Aerospace to talk to this group of young professionals about his legendary career. Kelly Johnson had revolutionized aviation by created some of the most innovative and amazing aircraft ever made, including the U-2 Spyplane and the SR 71, the fastest production plane ever built. His work had made him a legend and hero to everyone involved with building or flying planes.
But the presentation did not go as everyone thought. He did not talk about his great successes, but about his greatest failures. He talked about his airplane designs that could not fly, another that could not land, and others that had just been really bad ideas. The audience was stunned. Why was he talking about his failures and not his great success? He told them that as young engineers and designers, they needed to know that they could and would fail, but to be willing to learn and grow from that failure. He told them they needed to learn not just when they failed but how they failed.
If we were following Jesus as he traveled across the countryside teaching the people, we would have heard many lessons and stories about spiritual failure and why it happens. One of those lessons is called the Parable of the Sower. He uses a common event that was a familiar part of their lives to shine a light on a dark corner of their life. He wants to talk to them about failure.
Here is the account from the Book of Luke.
Luk 8:5-8
(5) “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it.
(6) And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.
(7) And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.
(8) And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Jesus calls out to the people to listen and to learn something very important. We need to learn when and how we fail.
Who fails and who succeeds? Jesus speaks of those who’s heart will not hear or acknowledge the message of God, those that make a start but cannot continue, those that remain but are unfruitful, and finally those that fulfill their mission of being fruitful for God. The common element across all four stories is the message, the Gospel. It remains the same across the different hearts and across time. Peter spoke of this in Acts 2 when he told the people "For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself." It is not the message that fails but the condition of the heart where the seed falls. It is not the broadcast of God’s plan, His church, or His promises that fail, but the reception.
But who are these failures? The simple answer is, I am. Instead of looking at this parable as describing four different people, I must insert myself into each scenario. At times, I have been the heart that would not hear. I have been the heart choked by worldliness. I have been the unfruitful one, and even the heart on fire for the cause of God. I have been all four and will be again unless I take care, because each season means changing conditions of the heart.
If the message is timeless, so are the obstructions. In this moment of history, when there is such uncertainty, pressure, fear, and isolation, we might fall into the trap of thinking that we are unique or live in a unique time. We are not. The Parable of the Sower addresses the times of prosperity and the times despair. Anger and fear can pack down the pathway. Worry causes weeds to grow and a focus on uncertainty can cause the soil to become shallow. It takes deliberate self-awareness and self-care to recognize how the currents of politics, health, the economy, social pressure and age change the environment of our heart.
If I recognize that I am not immune to the failures of the packed pathway, the shallow soil, or the weed-choked border, and recognize what it takes for the Gospel to thrive in me, I can renovate the soil of my heart. I can plow up what has become packed down and unresponsive. I can throw out the stones and deepen my understanding and commitment. I can pull the weeds of worldly thinking and misplaced priorities. I can make sure the seed can find a receptive place each and every season that the seed is scattered. I can bear fruit for God (John 15) as he intended.
How often is that needed and how do we do that? I think part of the answer is found in the specific instructions regarding looking at the condition of the soil in question. Paul, in his description of the Lord’s Supper, refers to some in the Corinthian church as “...weak and asleep...” Considering all that the church at Corinth was facing his description is understandable. His solution in part is “But a man must examine himself,...” (I Cor. 11:28). They needed to acknowledge their failure and get to work with the plow.
In the same way, as we turn our mind to the scene of the dying Savior, we turn our eyes away from the external world. We look inside ourselves and ask about our commitment, our priorities, and our openness to the Father’s sovereign Will. As I view the spectacle of Jesus dying to fulfill that Will and must challenge myself to surrender myself. I must recognize the areas of my heart that need renovation and open that ground. If we do not understand that I can change for the better I might miss that I have changed for the worse.
An what if we fail? The Parable of the Sower is not about dividing the world into four camps but seeing ourselves, at different moments, as each condition of the heart, and making the change needed to restore the soil. Among those who were called out by God for their failures included Moses, David, and Peter. To have failed does not mean we are failures. When we fail, we must reclaim our heart for God, placing His Love and Will above ours, and planting again the message of hope that is found in the story of Jesus.
The road Kelly Johnson took to creating the highest flying and fastest airplane ever built was paved with understanding his failures. Find the packed, rocky and thorn-filled places in your heart, the places of failure. Now get busy turning over that soil for the good seed.
