Failure Precedes Success

For every successful person we admire, there is failure preceding the success. In a famous Nike commercial, Michael Jordan stated, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed” (https://www.forbes.com/quotes/11194/). Christians fail! The news is littered with the checkered track record. From the 1988 PTL (Praise the Lord) downfall of Jim Bakker to the recent moral failings of prominent figures like Bill Hybels and Ravi Zacharias, when Christian leaders fail, they don’t fail forward: they fall hard! (Bob Smietana, “After Ravi Zacharias Report, Christians Examine How to Avoid ‘Betrayal Blindness,’” Religion News, March 3, 2021, https://religionnews.com/2021/03/03/how-to-prevent-another-ravi-zacharias-rzim-abuse-demoss-baughman-betrayal-blindness-spa/).