How To Fail Successfully
Lucy Holt
I heard one of my favourite ever sermons when I was about 15, it was such timeless advice that it stuck with me and I’ve retold a version of this as a school assembly on many occasions. This is about Elijah in the wilderness from 1 Kings 19. Elijah is under threat of death from Jezebel, afraid, alone and exhausted he flees to the desert at Horeb.
Here are six important things to remember in times of struggle or failure:
Success doesn’t make you immune to struggle or failure.
This story immediately follows fire falling from heaven at Mount Carmel. Elijah had stood before crowds to defend his God and seen a dramatic miracle. Despite this huge and visible success and recent evidence that God was with him, he still went through this difficult time.
In the middle of tough times things don’t always make much sense.
Elijah was threatened with death, he ran a great distance lay down and told God he wanted to die. Any kind of dark and difficult feelings like this should always be taken seriously and anyone feeling like this should seek help. We can see in the story that Elijah’s feeling are conflicted - he ran away to protect his life, but then told God he felt his life was over.
Eat and sleep.
No one is ever too holy or important to need to take care of the physical basics of eating and sleeping. Elijah was an incredible prophet and, in verses 5-7, God sent an angel to look after him. The angel didn’t tell him about any great theology or spiritual vision. The angel told him to sleep and to eat, then to sleep and eat again. If it’s good advice for Elijah, it’s always good advice to look after eating and sleeping patterns in difficult times.
Talk about the situation, more than once if needed.
God appears to Elijah and asks him what he is doing in the wilderness. In verse 10, Elijah replies with a speech telling God how hard he has tried and how alone he feels. In verse 13, God asks Elijah the same question again and Elijah repeats his speech. God already knew (better than Elijah) the situation, but gave Elijah space to explain his perspective not once but twice. Sometimes it takes a while to talk things through and understand our own feelings. Sometimes we need to be patient with people we love if they need to repeat themselves and go over things we already know, as they work things out.
Things aren’t as bad as they seem.
Elijah is convinced he is the only follower of God left. When God replies, He tells Elijah there are actually seven thousand others left who have not worshiped idols. Difficult times and feelings make us feel isolated and alone, but actually there are always others who have been through similar things and people who will help if we let them.
Get a practical plan for the next steps.
The instructions God gives Elijah involve anointing various people with oil and making someone king. This is not likely to be the solution for our problems but Elijah’s plan is still full of specific practical details: where to go, who to see, what can happen next. After the resting, talking and connecting to others, it’s time to do something practical to move the situation on.
I’ve come back to this very many times in the last 30 years and it’s always been good advice, I hope some of you will also find it useful.
