Our Victory
“Today we celebrate the gift of victory over every fall we have ever experienced.” ~ Jeffrey R. Holland
We don’t like to think about failure. We don’t concentrate on it at all. We don’t even like to acknowledge it. However, failure is a very real part of our lives. Because of our human condition tainted by original sin and living in a world tainted by original sin, failure is going to happen. Maybe we will be lucky and it won’t happen as often or as big as it might happen to someone else, but, failure is inevitable at one point or another in our lives.
Failure doesn’t define us. It never has and it never will. What defines us is what we do after we fail.
I’m sure there would be many people back then as well as throughout the ages who would have claimed the crucifixion as a “fail” for Jesus. It sure wasn’t a reward. It wasn’t a public accolade. Jesus wasn’t getting kind of honors or respect out of it. He was paraded openly and humiliated publicly. He was beaten, tattered and torn when He was nailed to the cross. And then He died.
While we might remember that death and even commemorate it in a manner of speaking on Good Friday, it is not the death that defined Jesus with a fail. Rather, it was what He did three days later. He rose from the dead.
Okay. Stop right there. I know what you might be thinking: “Of course He rose from the dead. He’s Jesus, the Son of God.” Yes. Yes, He is. But He showed us what all of us can and should do when we are down: get back up again.
Even when we are down in our own death, we don’t need to remain there. Because of Easter, we have been given the promise of resurrection. What are we going to do about that? Are we going to live as an Easter people hoping to embrace the Lord’s resurrection one day or are we going to wallow in failures and defeats of all kinds?
FAITH ACTION: If you are feeling low because you have recently failed, claim your victory in Christ and ask God for the grace you need to pick yourself back up.