| Strength and Beauty |
Chapter 13 |
Page 4 |
Then he uses our blundering efforts, if only love and faith be in them, to bless others, to do good, to build up his kingdom. Christ is saving the world today, not through faultless work of perfect angels, but through the poor, ignorant, flawed, ofttimes very tactless, foolish work of disciples who love him and want to help him.
Take another phase of the same truth. We usually think of defeat as dishonorable. Sometimes it is. It is dishonorable when it comes through cowardice or lack of effort. We ought to train ourselves to be over comers. But when one has bravely done his best and after all has gone down in the struggle there is no disgrace in his failure. A twofold battle is going on whenever a man is fighting with hard conditions or adverse circumstances, and it is possible for him to fail in one and be victorious in the other. Too often a man succeeds in his battle with the world at the cost of truth and right. That is defeat indeed, over whose dishonor heaven grieves. But when a man fails in his struggle with circumstances, and yet comes out with his manhood untarnished, he is a conqueror indeed and his victory gives joy to the heart of Christ. Such failure as this is, in heaven’s sight, glorious success and no dishonoring of the life.
Defeat is the school in which most of us have to be trained. In all kinds of work men learn by making mistakes. The successful business man did not begin with success. He learned by experience and the experience was very costly. The true science of living is not to make no mistakes, but not to repeat one’s mistakes. Defeat when one has done one’s best, and when one takes a lesson from his defeat, is not something to be ashamed of, but something to be glad for, since it sets one’s feet on a little higher plane. Defeat which makes us wiser and better is a blessing to us.
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