Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone and thanks for listening to Wake

Up Look Up, a podcast where we connect

events happening in real time to the gospel

of Jesus Christ.

I'm Zach Weirach and in today's episode we're

asking the question, does God want you to

fail?

This is prompted by an article I read

by Arthur Brooks this week who's always very

insightful in his commentary and he was talking

about the necessity of failure, the way failure

causes us to grow in ways we wouldn't

grow without it.

In fact, science tells us that failure drives

growth.

The reality is when we struggle in an

area in life, that is what often motivates

us to either get better in that area

or to put that area down and lean

into other areas where we know we can

experience growth.

In that way, discomfort might be felt as

a negative, but Brooks' whole point is we

should reframe it into a positive.

If discomfort is a necessary step towards growth,

then when we feel it, it's not something

to push back from but to lean into.

In other words, it might be a way

of saying, hey look, I'm growing because I'm

not comfortable.

It leads to something that social scientists call

action rumination, which is a mental process we

go through.

Why didn't that go well?

What should I have done differently?

How could I change to be better in

the future?

These, of course, are growth-oriented questions.

Failure can be applied to cause growth.

That's true in parenting, that's true in your

career, that's true in your relationships.

Failing doesn't mean you're inherently flawed, it means

you need to grow.

And we all do.

But the area, of course, I'm concerned about

is not parenting or career, all those are

meaningful, but is actually your spiritual growth.

Because I think Brooks' point is transferable to

the spiritual world.

In other words, if discomfort leads to growth,

then spiritual discomfort leads to spiritual growth.

This is exactly what James means, by the

way, in James 1, when he says, consider

it joy when you encounter trials, because trials

lead to the perseverance of your faith.

Sometimes when we experience negativity, discomfort, things that

we don't want in life, we tend to

ask, God, where are you?

God, don't you care?

Don't you see me?

What are you doing?

And the answer sometimes, James says, is He's

growing us.

Remember, God's made a promise to make us

not just positionally holy in Jesus, but actually

holy.

Jesus tells us in the Gospels that it's

His job to present the church to Himself,

spotless and blameless.

God is working in your life to make

you who He wants you to be, who

you want to be, who you need to

be to live forever in the kingdom.

He's at work in your life and sometimes

works through discomfort.

Failure often leads to growth.

It can lead to humility.

Proverbs 3 says that we should lean on

the Lord and not trust our own understanding,

but are any of us really capable of

that?

Until failure rises up, kind of smacks us

in the face, and makes us realize our

own understanding is not worth leaning on.

Kind of kicking that seat out from under

me causes me to go looking for a

new chair, the chair of leaning on God.

Mistakes lead to maturity.

Maturity leads to holiness.

So consider this maybe today.

Ask God to help you see discomfort today

and moving forward as a tool in His

hands.

He loves us.

He has great plans for us.

Discomfort is not the tool we wish He

would use always, but when He uses it,

it's always for our good, always for our

progress.

And Brooks is right.

Those who really grow in any arena, including

their faith, are those who lean into discomfort

and ask, what do I need to do

differently?

How do I need to change?

But of course we could add to that,

and who will help me get there?

And the answer, friends, is Jesus, your King,

your Redeemer, and the One who won't stop

working in your life to make you holy.

This episode of Wake Up, Look Up was

produced by Marcus Cunningham and Howie Andrews.

Our topic researcher is Shanna Young.

This episode was directed by Rima Saleh.

Our podcast coordinator is Howie Andrews.

Our production manager and audio wizard is Marcus

Cunningham with tech and engineering support from Matthew

Adel and Landon Hall.

I'm your host, Zach Weirach.

Join us for the next episode of Wake

Up, Look Up.