I once heard a story about Thomas Edison and his team that invented the lightbulb. When it was finished, he gave it to a young boy to carry to another part of the building. You guessed it. The kid dropped the bulb.
Can you identify with that young boy right now? Maybe you were handed an important task, a new position in the company, you’ve recently become the pastor of a church—and with the way things are going it just feels like the lightbulb is slipping. All you can see are shattered fragments reflecting your shattered goals and great expectations.
There is good news for you today. The gospel announces that we’re not defined by our dropped lightbulbs. There’s always another chance. Because the gospel works, we can find peace. Even when things are broken.
Gospel Talk For Broken Bulbs
The gospel shows us that Jesus chooses those who are failures to display his glory. Peter denied Christ three times and fled from him in his moments of greatest need. He was a failure as a disciple and as a friend. The gospel makes no sense for those who don’t see themselves in Peter’s failure. Those who aren’t bulb-droppers have no need of good news. Jesus says, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). We’re sinners. So we fail.
When we have confidence in this gospel truth, it inspires different attitudes towards our work. Because our identity isn’t bound up with whether we can safely carry the lightbulb we are freed to make mistakes. We are freed from the pressure to perform in order to prove that we are capable. The plain truth is that we’re not. We need the Lord to save us from our sins. We need him to strengthen us for and, yes, even accomplish the good works he’s designed for us to do. He doesn’t demand that we do it all perfectly. Jesus, the Great Physician, is the only one who never fails. Because of his death and resurrection, we’re not chained to our failures.
The chains of failure might be some of the most crushing weight to bear in leadership. When we fail, we tend to feel like we’ve let everyone down—even those who aren’t even part of whatever we might be leading. We forge chains that bind identity placards to ourselves: Failure. Loser. Imposter. Wannabe. We’re tempted to throw in the towel, to just kind of roll out of the ring.
What God Sees in Mistakes
That’s not what the Lord sees. Rather than chains he’s wrapped you in a white robe. He’s put his identity placard on you. When the risen Lord met Peter by the sea, he didn’t tell him, “Hey you, failure-as-a-friend-dude, I’m going to make Andrew the rock instead.” No, he restored him and said, “Feed my sheep” (John 21:17). If you lead for any length of time, you will fail. You will disappoint others. Things will not go the way you hope. You know what? You might even lose a leadership position. The good news is that it doesn’t define who you are in Christ.
What happened to that young boy entrusted with the lightbulb? Edison was undaunted. He immediately had another made, then called the boy back, handed him the second lightbulb, and instructed him to try again. He actually gave him a second chance.
I guess he made it, because I’m writing under a lightbulb right now.
Today’s Tenacious Question
Are you holding on to some failure in your past right now? Maybe it’s recent, maybe it’s something from awhile ago. In what way have you given that prominence in how you see yourself? And what hope does the gospel give?
Prayer
Thank you, Lord, that you do not accept me because I bring so much to the table. I am weak. I repeatedly fail. I am a sinner. You have saved me by your grace. You have made me your child. Grant me the grace to live with the kind of hope that should stir in my heart, even when things don’t go the way I wanted. Amen.
Photo by Kanishk Agarwal on Unsplash
