Reading

Genesis 3.17-18

And to the man God said,
‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife,
and have eaten of the tree
about which I commanded you,
“You shall not eat of it”,
cursed is the ground because of you;
in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.

Reflection

We all live with the consequences of failure. We fail to get jobs. We fail to be patient with our loved ones. We fail to do everything we say we’re going to do in that flash of enthusiasm.

As individuals we might be aware of how we measure up against others, of relationships that have gone wrong, or of our bodies failing. On the news, we see failure on a global scale – conflict, famine, injustice, poverty.

Failure is the wallpaper of life. It hangs in the background, slowly building the scenery of our days. How can we live, surrounded as we are by failure? We can’t shy away from it, or try and escape it, or live in constant fear of it. Otherwise, we’ll live narrow lives, motivated by running away from failure rather than running towards full, exciting, hopeful lives.

So, failure. We’d better learn to live with it.

Challenge

Think of an area of failure that you are living with. Is there a way you can live with it “better” – to be less afraid of it?