Measure (500)

"You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: When men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return?" 

Jeremiah 8:4 ESV

As I have gotten older, I have learned that failure is a good measure of a man's decisions in life, but it doesn't always measure the man himself. In most cases, failures are nothing more than a path to later success. Properly studied, our failures can teach us more about who we are as men and most importantly, they can teach us about God's nature more than success ever could. I think that is because failure causes us to pause and think about the decisions that lead to that event in our life. 

Spiritually speaking, I have grown very little during times of ease and success. While I am thankful for the times that I have spent on the mountaintop, I am just as thankful for the time that I have spent in the valley. It is during those dry and desperate times that I have felt the presence of God so real in my life. While the times when I can cruise, feeling free and clear, wind in my hair, it is the times when the wheels grind to a halt and I am forced to take a true, retrospective look at my life and my heart gets broken due to circumstances, that God gets my attention. 

Men, hear me. Failure doesn't define who you are as long as you get back up and carry on. Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson once said, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." It is the times that I have felt my legs go out from under me and I felt the weight of my situation on my back that I pressed hardest into Christ. And to do so is an absolutely righteous action. It is unnatural for a man to go down and stay there. It is the moments when we say, "No more!" and we rise up from the ground, that we find God's greatest grace. 

It is the perseverance, the faithfully moving forward of our journey that we need. It is at that moment that we can truly discover how big our God really is. And believe me when I say this, He will show up and show out if you simply ask Him for a hand up. There is no shame in asking God to help us up and it there is no shame in asking a brother in Christ for the same help up.