One of my favourite books to dip into for a good story is ‘Heroic Failures’, written in 1979 by Stephen Pile, it is a collection of true stories about how often we all mess up!
Here is part of his preface to Heroic Failures:
‘To all those who have written terrible books on how to be a success. I dedicate this terrible book on how it’s perfectly alright to be incompetent for hours on end. I am, and so is everyone else I know.
Success is overestimated; everyone craves it despite daily proof that man’s real genius lies in quite the opposite direction. Incompetence is what we are good at. It is the quality that marks us off from the animals, and we should learn to revere it.’
The book is now being updated, so let me share some of the new stories, all true, I believe. Consider the following:
Lost Luggage!
A man who had just returned home from holiday had his luggage thrown away by dustmen. Phil Newbon from Spalding, Lincolnshire, left his luggage on the pavement as he returned home, and when he glanced back, he realised it was being crushed by grinders inside the back of their dustcart. His clothes, mobile phone, sat-nav, digital camera, and gifts for family and friends were destroyed. Even his duty-free was being crunched up.
Phil, who says the total value was £1,600, said, 'I couldn't believe my eyes. I only left my bags there while I chatted to a pal after getting a lift back from the airport. Then they were gone, and everything was being smashed to pieces. I thought I was being set up for a TV stunt. The council told me people often leave suitcases out for collection, and I'm sure that's true. But I doubt they have 25kg of luggage inside, tags still attached, and a bag of hand luggage and duty-free next to them.'
Phil is now trying to get compensation from South Holland council, Lincs, England, but says he has been told he will not get a penny in compensation.
Peter’s Failures:
Whether we want to laugh or cry, we can recognise ourselves in others’ failures. Peter, like most of us, is the victim of ‘overestimation’. Peter seems to have had a very high opinion of himself, but his strengths were also his weaknesses!
At Caesarea Philippi, he shows both great faith and great faithlessness as he both confesses Jesus as the Christ and a moment later attempts to silence him.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, he attempts to defend Jesus violently, and yet a few hours later, he is shamed by a servant girl into denying Jesus.
As a Fisherman he prides himself as skilled and hardworking; he talks of working all night, and yet both here in the account we have in John’s gospel, and in the other gospels, we see him fail to catch anything.
As an Apostle, he failed to follow through on the special revelation that he had been given about ‘the Clean’ and ‘the Unclean’, a division that separated the gentile converts from the Jewish converts.
Both Peter’s strengths and weaknesses were a part of his personality, and the best and the worst of Peter’s personality could be summed up by his words to Christ before the event of Holy Week:
“Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you,” Matthew 26:35.
Learning to love ourselves:
Peter has a poor understanding of his own weaknesses, but this low point in his life is at the same time the point of growth. Peter’s desire is to follow Jesus, and yet he must learn that:
Following Jesus has nothing to do with self-confidence: “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”
Peter’s focus is on what he will do. It’s all Peter. Our faith can never be in what we can do, only in what Jesus can do in us.
Following Jesus has nothing to do with Rash Resolutions: “Even if I have to die for you, I will never disown you”.
Peter commits himself to a course of action that he is not able to fulfil because he is blind to his own weakness.
Our faith in Christ requires us to be aware of our own weakness so that we can draw on Christ’s strength.
Following Christ has nothing to do with empty enthusiasm:
Peter’s brave words are rendered empty by the simple question put to him by a servant girl. The word ‘Enthusiasm means to be filled with God, here we find that Peter is filled with hot air, not God.
So we can see why Peter crashes, he is putting his trust in the wrong person, but this is the growth point of Peter’s life because at the point in the story that we reach today he has a last come to the place where he is able to say: “I have failed!” Only at this point is Jesus able to teach him about trust.
The Re-Institution of Peter.
As we listen in on Jesus' conversation with Peter, we hear the words “Do you love me?” Jesus asks the question three times. Why?
Well, we know that Peter denied him three times, and yet Jesus has not given up on him. With each question comes the reinstatement of Peter as Pastor of the flock.
Jesus knows the worst of Peter and the best of Peter, he loves him not because of his strengths, nor abandons him because of his weaknesses, he loves him for himself.
Peter, at last, is able to recognise this, in response to the last question, he says, “Lor,d you know all things, you know that I love you.”
Jesus knows Peter’s heart; he knows his love for him, and Peter no longer feels he has to prove it. The purpose of Jesus' questioning is not to discover Peter’s heart but to reinstate him.
Jesus' love, his forgiveness is the beginning of Peter’s spiritual growth. Peter had put his trust in the wrong person. Now he knows who to put his trust in. It is Jesus’ love that transforms Peter into the person whom we now regard as a hero of the NT.
From Self-Pity to Self-Knowledge through the acknowledgement of failure.
From Self-Confidence to Service through the acknowledgement of failure.
From Self-Centred to Sacrifice through faith in Jesus Christ, who loves him better than he loves himself.
Is it alright to be a Failure?
Maybe you think failure is the wrong word for our human weaknesses. Jesus certainly never uses the word of anyone.
There is another way of understanding ourselves, not as failures but as fools. That is a word that is used of us in Paul’s letters!
Here is an extract from Stephen Pile's book – Heroic Failures
“Clowns are not in the centre of events,” he says. They appear between the great acts, fumble and fall, and make us smile again after the tensions created by the heroes we admire. The clowns do not have it together; they do not succeed in what they try, they are awkward, out of balance, and left-handed, but they are on our side, we respond to them not with admiration but with understanding, not with tension but with a smile.
Of the virtuous, we say,’ How can they do it? Of the clowns, we say, ‘they are like us… the clowns remind us with a tear and a smile that we share the same human weakness’
Peter, then a Fool for Christ – From Failure to Fool through the touch of Jesus Christ, who leaves Peter not a different person, but now, like Paul, he hears these words spoken to his wounded heart.
‘For my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. That is why for the sake of Christ, I delight in human weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties, for when I am weak, then I am strong …. For my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’
2 Corinthians 12:10