“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Thomas A. Edison

Yesterday’s blog post detailed one of the ways I tend to fail. Specifically how I tend to fail when I’m afraid I’m going to fail. It’s quite a cute little conundrum which I really hate about myself. Nevertheless, there it is, a truth about me. As I near a big milestone birthday and reflect back, I realize how much I have learned and am learning from my failures. I have to admit that it is true that I have learned far more from the failures, the mistakes, the hard times, and the weaknesses than I have learned from my successes and wins.

What has really been interesting to discover is how much others need my failures. This is harder for me than learning from my own failures. For others to learn from my failures means I need to share my failures with them, allow others to see my failures and not defend or excuse my failures. That is asking a lot!

The largest area where I have found this to be true is in raising my children. Especially as they have entered the teen years, I have found that it is vital that I be open, honest, and forthcoming about my weaknesses and failures. These messy areas of my life are hard to hide from my kids anyway since they live with me, and being honest and open about these untidy areas of my life allow me to speak into their lives and help them deal with things in their own lives in a more honest and hopefully preemptive way.

Church is the same way. As a pastor, rather than trying to portray a flawless, perfect man who has it all together, I need to be honest and transparent about my failures and weaknesses, because that can benefit many. This is true not just of pastors, but all of us. We need to be honest and open about our failures. We will learn far more from this very normal part of our earthly lives. It is very destructive to pride, but perhaps it takes a lot of pressure off of all of us. It is a key for us to not Keep Up Appearances.