Good Morning, I am looking at the computer through the foggy vision of only 3 sips of coffee so far.
That opening sentence, was written as an expression of a particularly pernicious deception which pervades the lives of many precious sons of God.
In the past 5 minutes, since I wrote the above 2 sentences, I have thought:
I am too sleepy to type, I need to go wash my face and comb my hair;
My glasses are too dirty to read the computer, I need to find one of the lense cleaners and fix that;
I am not sure I have thought this through enough to write about it, maybe I should put this off to another day.
All these things seem so normal and human. But, they are actually all expressions of an internal fear of failure.
Fear of failure is pernicious, pervasive and powerful.
We have developed many different ways to describe it’s effects and symptoms: Extreme Busyness, Writer’s Block, Procrastination, OCD, Loneliness, Preference to not talk anyway but face to face, Piles of things on the desk, Dozen’s of tasks started but not completed, Messy garage, Late night television watching, Poor sleep patterns, Sales contacts not called, Telephone calls not returned, Broken relationships, Frequent self-criticism, Frequent minor sicknesses, etc. All these symptoms are similar. They all tend to produce two effects:
First, each tends to produce the failure I feared;
Second, each offers an excuse to explain my failure to others and justify it to myself.
I first began to recognize this when I was practicing law. I always put every writing project off until the last possible moment (or a little later). Procrastination was refined to a fine art. Then at the very last moment I would call on the grace of God and write what was needed. I was building into every project my explanation to myself about why it was not as well done as it should have been.
Enough about the problem ! This is depressing if we do not look at the cause and the solutions.
Have you noticed ? Just as you get to the most important or difficult part, something occurs to you that needs your attention (like the dog toys which had to be put away from the floor just now).
THE CAUSE
Strange as it may seem the entire fear of failure is rooted in our PRIDE ! What ? Pride ? This cannot be pride. After all it is not a belief I will do better than others it is a fear I will do worse. There in lies its wonderful deception. I only fear failure because I believe I am supposed to be perfect. If I fall short of the absolute perfection of the god I think I am, then I am a failure. Even if other people see me as being a wonderful success, in my own eyes I remain a failure. My pride says that like Mary Poppins of fiction I am practically perfect in every way. I live in the constant fear that my failure to be the perfect god will be exposed. Therefore, much of my personal energy is devoted to the development of the excuses I need to cover up my failures to be the perfect god my pride tells me I should be. Strangely many of my excuses end up precipitating events making my fear of failure a self-fulfilling false prophecy.
THE PATH TO FREEDOM
1. Repent from your pride. Stop believing religious people who have told you God expects you to be practically perfect in every way. Instead accept the truth of the Bible that you were created a little lower than the angels not a little better than God. Moreover, accept the Bible that you are in the process of maturing and working out your salvation. You are not expected to already be perfected. God accepts you and loves you just as you are today. It is time for you to accept and love yourself just as you are today. What you write, say, or do today can be improved and/or corrected tomorrow. Stop thinking you need to be perfect in anyone’s sight.
2. Accept and believe and receive: God loves you exactly as you are right now. Jesus loved you enough to die for you while you were a sinner insulting Him and the Father and Holy Spirit continually. They all three continue to love you and accept you. Let that love erase all of your fears.
3. Accept that you are not yet perfect and you are not super human. About 50 years ago, Peter Marshall, Jr. taught a wonderful sermon series which revolved around one theme — When you are upset about who you really are it is only because of the deceptions of your own pride which made you expect yourself to be someone different. It is not merely okay for you to be you; it is wonderful for you to be the real you that God has created you to be for this moment in time. Do not be afraid to fail. God will even use your failures.
Some years ago I was in the Cape Verde Islands, a nation located about a hundred fifty miles off the western tip of Africa. As I spoke the first night, I was working through an interpreter who feared his own failures to the point that he would repeatedly freeze and not interpret what I was saying. I was very frustrated. Sadly, I failed! I failed in a spectacular display of rudeness and rejection of the young man who was doing his best. What I did was wrong and without excuse. As a result the local leaders decided to stop the scheduled week of meetings. I met with them and asked for an opportunity to meet with the people and apologize to the people before they stopped the meetings. They permitted me to do so. When I did, Holy Spirit showed up in a marvelous way and created a bond between the local leaders, the people, and myself. It was truly a miracle of God. The people and the leaders asked me to stay and complete the week of meetings. The turning point was in the moment when I stood before the people and said, “I was wrong. Please forgive me.” Indeed, because of my failure God could touch the lives of those people on much deeper levels than would have been possible if I had remained perfect.
PLEASE LET GO OF YOUR PRIDEFUL FEAR OF FAILURE. BEGIN TO ENJOY BEING WHO YOU ARE. THEN THE REAL GOD WHO IS PERFECT WILL BE HONORED THROUGH YOUR LIFE.
His, thus Yours,
Stuart
His-Family 
I was at work one day and a coworker was training me to perform a task that seemed so easy for her. I made some comment about it being perfectly executed, and this is what she said to me. “I am so glad I do not have the responsibility to be perfect.” The Holy Spirit used what she said and a peace washed over me that I so needed. God took on that responsibility for me. I never have to worry about measuring up to the perfectionist standards in my own mind. Now if I have a pile of papers sitting that needs to be put away, I know that the Holy Spirit will give the grace to accomplish that task at the right time, and it will be easy, not hard. I don’t need to be wasting precious emotional energy trying to be perfect, This is something that God has already done for me. Thank you, Stu, for reminding me of this truth!
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This is excellent. I so remember when I discovered that my perfectionism (something I was secretly proud of) was indeed the sin of pride. I was expecting everything I did & said to be always top notch. And when (invariably) is wasn’t, I would mentally berate myself, constantly thinking of all that I should have said or done. I still struggle with this some and the Holy Spirit wonderfully reminds me to repent of this foolish pride (for that is indeed what it is…pride). A twin lesson was discovering that my constant stream of negative thoughts was also a perverse type of pride. Ah, me…it seems none of us is immune from this pride thing. But how freeing it has been to let this thing go & let God just do His thing in my life. 🙂 Thanks for yet one more reminder, Stuart. Blessings!
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