Daily Worship

Success and Failure

July 23, 2014 0 0

1Corinthians 15:10

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect.
No, I worked harder than all of them – yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

Teach me anew this day my God that through failure and disappointment 
I can learn how to live my daily life under grace.
Losing in some way teaches us how urgent it is
that we learn to appreciate and appropriate Your grace in a living way.
Most of us Lord define ourselves by what we do
and we can feel that our work and performance depends on our competence.
I confess Lord that I find this confusing at times
because on some level our gifts and abilities are instrumental.
You O God may have to work with us for years
to bring us to the place where we understand in our heart
how it can be possible that my abilities matter,
and yet I am to take no sense of egotism from that fact.
I am learning Lord that usually only profound failure will convince us that
"apart from the vine we can do nothing,"
Give me more O Lord of that paradoxical outlook of a mature disciple of Jesus
--an outlook only accessible through a combination of success and failure. 
So be it. Amen.

 

Rev. Steve Jones, Chaplaincy Support Director for Welsh Sport with Sports Chaplaincy UK