Thought for the Week - 26th February 2023

Dear Friends, 

I’m currently reading the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book for 2023 by Emma Ineson entitled Failure – What Jesus said about Sin, Mistakes, and Messing Stuff Up. It begins by defining failure as ‘when something doesn’t go to plan’ but goes onto ask, ‘Whose plan?’ the world’s plan or God’s plan? It is helping me to think about how ‘success’ and ‘failure’ are measured. I wonder what constitutes success and failure in your mind, and what do you base your reasoning on? When Thomas Edison was asked about the failure he had experienced on the way to inventing the electric lightbulb he is said to have said, ‘I have not failed 10,000 times – I have successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work’. Perhaps we all need a little bit of Edison illumination as we contemplate failure and success. The Bible reminds us that so called failure might look very different from God’s perspective. Writing to the believers in Corinth, the apostle Paul says, ‘For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God’ (1 Corinthians 1:18). Failure can often feel like foolishness and yet it is good to remember what the apostle goes onto say, that ‘the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength’ (1 Corinthians 1:25). For all the world the cross of Christ must have appeared an abject failure because for so many death is seen as the end of the road, the ultimate weakness. But the good news is that Jesus didn’t stay dead, God raised him to life again, the ultimate ‘success’ if you like, through the ultimate ‘failure’.

Grace and peace,

Neil     

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