The Upside of Failing

I went downstairs last night to check on my son. It had been a particularly difficult past two days and I was spent. My grades had come in, and they were bleak, my finances were still as messy as ever and I had tried to install our $35 garage sale dishwasher only to discover that I couldn't make it all fit leaving our kitchen a disaster for six or seven hours before my neighbor who is a plumber came and fixed it in 15 minutes (the part I was stuck at in less than five).

Anyway...I was feeling quite down and tired. My son, sitting on my bed watching Disney's Meet the Robinsons immediately climbed on my lap and curled into my arms. A minute later the quote that first got me hooked on that film came on: "To Lewis and his brilliant failure; may it lead to success in the future." That moment is so powerful. The boy spends the rest of the movie realizing what that means and then the even more empowering phrase "Keep moving forward" taken from the words of Walt Disney himself.

Everything about that movie screamed hope to me last night. It spoke of heartache and trial and how we are led on from that point. The closing scenes, the ending music, it all spoke of peace and love. That is the message I needed to hear. It is the one that we all need to hear.

I read part of a Liahona article afterwards: "We ought to realize that no matter what we've done in life, no matter what we do, God and Christ still love us just as much as they did before we failed," (Lowell L Bennion, "Overcoming Our Mistakes," Tambuli, Jul 1981, 47). Even at this moment, that simple line showers my soul with the spirit of our Heavenly Father. They do love us and want the best for us and will always love us, even if we fought against them with every part of our being.

This morning I continued my quest for enlightenment by searching for the words of others on the subject. One of the best was from Theodore Roosevelt who said, "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, that to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat," (Quoted in The Strenuous Life).

I am reminded of the words of John Mayer who sang, "It's better to say too much, than never to say what you need to say," (Say). Our lord said similar to through the Apostle John in Revelation when, speaking to the head of the Laodicean church, he said, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth," (Revelation 3:15-16). We cannot be fence sitters. They are worse than those who choose evil. Think on that.

Life's a journey and no single event makes it or brakes it. It is the sum total of who are at the end, which will be made up of all our experiences on the way, that determine the next life. It really is "all about the climb." We have to try and since we're flawed we'll make mistakes along the way. For most of us we'll make them every day. But that is what the atonement is for. Just like learning to play the piano takes hours of earsplitting practice and more patience than many of us have, life requires nothing less. Michael Jordan, considered by many the greatest basketball player ever, put it simply when he said, "I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed."

Finally I was looking for a lyrics page to copy down some of Miley Cyrus's song The Climb for another quote on the topic of failure. Turns out I couldn't select just part of the song. When I first heard it months ago I actually felt the Spirit bear witness to my soul that the words she was proclaiming through song were true. That song has forever been embedded in my heart for its power to remind me of what life is about. I posted it here to let it do so to others.

Miley Cyrus - New Music - More Music Videos