13 Apr Facing the Failure

Testimony – Lessions Learnt Through Failure

“Hello! My name is failure” failure knocked at my door one day. An invited guest forcibly entered my life.
I had graduated from MIT Chennai in 2014 and started working in a private firm. After attending a leadership camp, God talked to me to move to government job, so I started writing exams. Having read so many success stories and positive quotes, failures in the initial exams did not bother me. I was able to take it in a positive way. But slowly, as the number of failures in exams started increasing, my confidence level started going down. Every failure started choking my confidence level and positive energy. This led into sleepless nights, depression, stress, doubting God’s plan for my life and finally great disappointment with God.

My uninvited guest ‘failure’ was laughing at me and it took hold of me. I thought my life is sunk and every effort was down the drain. I could see nothing but darkness for the rest of my life.

I still pulled myself up, Though the one year journey of writing different exams (almost 30) and having failed in all the exams, choked my confidence and positive energy level, God in his sovereignty used this phase to teach me many valuable lessons that I would like to share here.

1. Be sure God prepares an individual through tough times
God uses the failures in our life to mould us and shape us to be the best. God allows the failure in our life to break down the pride and change our belief system from “I can do all things” to “Without God, how can I?”

2. Failure increases the faith of an individual
The more failure you face, the stronger your faith will become. Failure in one phase will help you to go through the trials and tough situations in the next phase. If you look at the circumstances, sometimes you may doubt God whether He is listening to our prayers and why He is allowing failures in a believer’s life. But Romans 8:28 says, “In all things God works for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.” This is true, I thank God for letting me understand this verse first hand.

3. Failure story is unique for every individual
We as humans will always want God to act immediately in any situation, to give us the solution or to do a miracle. But the reality is that God has his own timing and plans. Sometimes we will look at the life of other graduates / fellow students failure phase and we will expect God to work in the same way in our lives. But the failure story of every individual is unique. Don’t compare your failure with that of others.

4. Be grateful for all that you have in spite of current failure
While writing exams at the different parts of the city, I got a chance to meet many aspirants, most of them were unemployed. I then realized that I never thanked God for my job. So many aspirants travelled from different parts of the state to attend the exam, but I got the exam centre in the same city. I did not have to travel much to write any exam. Instead of grumbling about the situation, I started thanking God for what was there in the life. The life which we are living is a dream for many people. Instead of worrying about what we donot have in life, thank God for what we have in life.

5. Graduates role in helping the students to face failure
As, graduates we have a huge responsibility to help the students or young graduates during this time, because mostly they stay away from their families and they need spiritual support to go through the phase. They need teaching to face the failures and disappointments by referring to the word of God and sharing from their own experiences. I remember how my graduates and mentors helped me to prepare for exams by opening their homes and providing all the moral support and prayer support whenever I needed. Once on the way to attend an interview, I was in a very panic mode, but an encouraging word “If God has reserved that job for you, no one can prevent you from getting it” from a graduate helped me to look to God in that situation.

Conclusion

Dictionary says failure is the opposite of success, but according to God, failure is a part of success and He allows it in a believer’s life to mould an individual. Instead of asking God, why this failure in life; we can ask God what does He want us to learn in this phase. Instead of complaining, we can be grateful and thankful to God. God will fulfill His purpose in our life. Focus on God always, instead of looking at the situation. God gives sufficient strength to face any situation.
Now when I look back, I thank God from the bottom of my heart for allowing all the failures in my life.

Jesintha Chandrasekar
The author is a young graduate from Bangalore failed in more than 26 exams before joining a Research Lab of a PSU given by God.