Failure is Success

This year at Church, we are following the Gospel of St Mark.  As I get older, I appreciate the power of this gospel as so much happens in such a short space.  It is action packed, presenting the abandoned, failed Christ as the one to follow. Interesting approach?  Well, it is a life saving approach for failing followers.

This gospel was written for a Christian community of the first century that knew persecution and with it, failure.  It was no glorious age of a new and victorious world movement.  So failure is presented so as to show the way to the failed disciples of Jesus down through the centuries.  It is the gospel that presents the ever failing and falling disciples of Jesus' day but more importantly it proclaims that they always get back up on their feet.  No matter what may come our way, the message for us, the present day failing disciples. is that the ultimate victory is with the Jesus who also knew failure and who is our faithful companion through all that befalls us.  The way is tough but, with Jesus, we can be ever confident.

As I get older, I see how I continue in my own patterns of failure.  I seem to be growing, getting better with age, but then I see how I continually fall.  Well, let me not despair for this is part of the human lot but not the whole story.  For inspiration, I go to Mark and his gospel.

The image symbolizing Mark is the winged lion.  Not a symbol, one would think, for a failure.  That is because Mark is not about our being failures but about our recognizing our failed reality and placing Jesus right in the midst of it.  The roaring lion well represents Mark as the gospel begins with a roar, proclaiming that the kingdom is here.  In the midst of the roar, we only too well know our limited experience and abilities but the roar reminds us never to be overcome.

As a friend shared from his treasures of wisdom:
"Our personal sets of temptations have an amazing staying power while our graces, like temptations, stretch across a lifetime."