What if You Fail?

Does that sound like the most depressing subject line ever? What if you fail? Really?! I know what you’re thinking. “Wow, Davonne, thanks so much for believing in me!”

But what if you do fail? In the end, God still wins, Satan still loses, and if we’re on the winning side, we get to spend eternity in Heaven.

“He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:13-14, NKJV

“Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Revelation 2:10, NKJV

Everything else is just temporary. Vapor.

“Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” James 4:14, NKJV

Isn’t that freeing and depressing all at the same time? We work so hard without knowing our temporary future. But, also we know God wins. So, yay!

If you do live like you’re going to fail, what would that change? Would you keep trying? Would you give up? Would you savor the process just a little bit more?

That’s what I’m doing! I know it sounds crazy, but I’m writing pretending that I’m going to fail. It’s changed everything.

Instead of chasing numbers, page views, and my own internal definition of success, I’m now writing to minister to the souls of women who need to know their role at home is valuable. I’m now focusing more on my own children – if they need me when I’m writing, I make it a point to turn the computer off more often. Anything online can wait.

But the little people are growing up right before my eyes. In fact, one of the little people is now over 5 feet tall! WHOA!

What if I fail? I want to know that I gave it my best. That I didn’t squander time. That I loved my family well. That I shared about God’s love with as many people as possible.

I want to know that I didn’t push my kids out or ignore their deepest soul needs just because of a desire for earthly success. You know that it hasn’t always been that way. I regularly struggle with getting pulled into worldly, temporary things. But a thought that keeps reeling me back in right now is asking myself, “What if I fail? What will I regret?”

If I fail, I know I’ll regret time I spent chasing a dream instead of ministering to the souls in my own community. I’ll regret missed opportunities and lost time that I could have invested into my children.

I want to live and write knowing that if I do “fail” by worldly standards, more important things weren’t neglected in the process. I want to know that I did my best to honor God with my words, my heart, and with the way I mothered my children and ministered to other people.

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.” Ecclesiastes 12:13, NKJV

At first glance, working to fail seems like a depressing mindset, but when we really think about it, there’s so much freedom. Yes, there are times to work hard. But there are also times to rest, to just be. To stop pushing.

What if I fail? What if you fail?

Did we do our best? Were we kind? Did we keep our integrity? Did we honor God with everything in us? And did we have a whole lot of fun working on something that we loved and were passionate about?

If so, failing doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

I think that when we love something so much we’re willing to risk failing at it, and to have fun doing so, then we’re not really failing at all.

So tell me – at what would you gladly fail?