Failure Is Not Final: Flaws Are Not Fatal—And Failures Are Not Final

By Eric Mansfield MD MPH

Have you ever done something that was so horrible that you truly have no excuses? A simple “bless your heart” won’t cut it, and the all-encompassing Christian Hail Mary phrase that covers a multitude of sins, “The Lord knows my heart,” just won’t do. Not for this time.

You can wax poetic. You dropped the ball at the five-yard line, you didn’t live up to your expectations, and you fell flat. Best of all, you’re only human. But when you look at the aftermath of your decisions, it looks like a battlefield of the emotionally and sometimes physically wounded.

There are no excuses. We knew better. We saw the trouble coming, and we just couldn’t step away. We got caught up in our selfishness, caught up in fleeting excitement, and caught up in minutes of recklessness that have left a lifetime of “I wish I hadn’ts.” When you peel off the weak excuses, the tissue-paper pride, the guilt, anger, and shame, “I messed up,” without just flat-out cussing, sums it up.

Now what will you do?

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664254657

Eric Mansfield MD MPH

Dr. Eric Mansfield has served as a pastor, an ear, nose, throat surgeon, an Army officer, and a North Carolina State Senator. He has experienced the splendor of success but he also knows the severe sting of failing miserably. It is only through the working of Jesus Christ that he has learned that his flaws were not fatal and his failures were not final.

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Copyright © 2022 Eric Mansfield, MD, MPH.

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Scripture quotations marked TPT are from The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017, 2018 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com.

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ISBN: 978-1-6642-5464-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-5463-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-5465-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022901794

WestBow Press rev. date: 01/27/2022

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Ram in the Bush

Chapter 2 He Called My Name

Chapter 3 Hold On

Chapter 4 Drink the Water

Chapter 5 Caught

Chapter 6 While You Were A Long Way Off

Epilogue

INTRODUCTION

I failed. I messed up. I lost everything that was important to me. When I looked for the enemy, the perpetrator of this problem, the only person in the mirror I could blame was me. In the most real sense, there was no devil who made me do it. The enemy was the inner me. I could say worse, but it wouldn’t be very Christian—but neither was I.

Have you ever done something that was so horrible that you truly have no excuses? A simple bless your heart won’t cut it, and the all-encompassing Christian Hail Mary phrase that covers a multitude of sins, The Lord knows my heart, just won’t do. Not for this time.

You can wax poetic. You dropped the ball at the five-yard line, you didn’t live up to your expectations, and you fell flat. Best of all, you’re only human. But when you look at the aftermath of your decisions, it looks like a battlefield of the emotionally and sometimes physically wounded.

We caused the suffering. We caused the pain that many will take years to recover from. We incited the anger. We sparked the insecurity that haunts our loved ones, and we inflicted the hurt. If you can be viciously honest, when you look at your life, it is littered with anguish that your actions have caused.

There are no excuses. We knew better. We saw the trouble coming, and we just couldn’t step away. We got caught up in our selfishness, caught up in fleeting excitement, and caught up in minutes of recklessness that have left a lifetime of I wish I hadn’ts. When you peel off the weak excuses, the tissue-paper pride, the guilt, anger, and shame, I messed up, without just flat-out cussing, sums it up. It’s not pretty, definitely not comfortable, and possibly harsh, but if the shoe fits, well, you know, shine it.

It’s just us. You can admit it. It’s your fault. Now, what will you do?

Hide … or confide?

May I introduce two other people, like you, who royally messed up. They were the ultimate power couple. They lived in the best neighborhood with the best house and had the best furnishings. The lawn was well-manicured. The farm-to-table concept started at their house. They had fellowship and a great relationship with the contractor and the builder of the property. He would even make spot corrections to the punch list, which is impossible to get after the final walk-through.

The contractor only had one rule, and they both broke it on the same day. They lost everything! Their eyes were opened to what they lost. They never envisioned the pain of what they obtained. Worst of all, they lost fellowship with the contractor. When the contractor came to discuss the broken contract, Adam and Eve hid (Genesis 3:9)

How do you hide from God? When I played hide-and-seek with my son, he would cover his eyes and not hide. He thought if he couldn’t see me, then I couldn’t see him. Many of you believe like my son. If you cover your mess, then God won’t see you.

Hate to break it to you, but He does! Your perpetual disasters won’t improve until you quit hiding. Your insistence on hiding exhibits myopic vision on your part. The truth is that you’re not hiding from God; you are hiding from yourself.

You have hidden behind religion. You have hidden behind a bottle. You have hidden behind another playmate and behind playthings. Worst, you have hidden behind your own ego. Yet through all of the stuff, He still sees you!

Can I insert a shouting point that I don’t want to minimize or skim over?

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.¹ (Genesis 3:8)

The shouting point is that after Adam and Eve failed, making a huge generation-propagating error, God still came looking for them. Notice, He didn’t look for them in anger. On the contrary, He still wanted to have fellowship with them even in their fallen state.

You may have botched it. You may have failed. You may have embarrassed yourself, your family, and your God. You may have lost your spouse, your job, and nearly your mind. God is still reaching out to find you. He wants to talk to us not only when we have been blessed but also in the middle of our worst blunder.

I know you are hurting. I know you have profound humiliation, shame, and embarrassment. Your story does not have to end here—unless you quit. You are not the sum of your mistakes, and you are not the reflection of your failures. There is hope.

Peter has some words of encouragement. You know him, don’t you? Peter was a disciple who walked with Christ. He was in Christ’s intimate circle of three. He alone correctly answered the question posed by Christ that Jesus was the Son of the Living God. Only two men in the history of the world walked on water, and Peter was one of them. When the soldiers came to imprison Jesus, Peter pulled out a switchblade and cut off one of the soldier’s ears.

Yet, when Christ was being beaten and tried, the peer pressure became too heavy. When the locals turned up the heat, he folded. Not once, not twice, but three times, cursing out the last person to ask. This is the same guy who told Jesus, Hey, I don’t know about the other disciples; They are a little sketchy, but me, I’ll never leave you. I’m your boy (Mark 14:29). And he flat-out epically flunks. Years later, this same Peter writes:

And then, after your brief suffering, the God of all loving grace, who has called you to share in his eternal glory in Christ, will personally and powerfully restore you and make you stronger than ever. Yes, he will set you firmly in place and build you up. And he has all the power needed to do this —forever! Amen.² (1 Peter 5:10–11)

Peter says from his experiences that once you have failed, when you are ready, God will personally and powerfully restore you, strengthen you, build you up, and place you on His firm foundation. The Greek word for restoration, katartizo, has the connotation of mending a net that has been broken. The hole in the net is mended by taking three ropes and intertwining them. The process makes it stronger in that area than the areas that have not been torn. In many ways, it is similar to a healed bone. Like the net-mending process, the restoration process will make you stronger.

If anyone should know about restoration, it would be Peter. Peter sulked for days after Jesus’s death and resurrection, believing he had miscarried his Lord’s ministry. After the resurrection, Jesus sought out Peter and asked him if he loved Him three times. Three times, Peter emphatically affirms he loves Jesus (John 21:15). Three times, he fails, and three times, he gets restored.

Look at the lengths that Jesus goes to seek out Peter, and God correspondingly seeks after Adam and Eve. He makes it personal. Your restoration and redemption are so important that He is not willing to subcontract it to anyone else. You are so important to Him that He is not just willing to conserve you from further misery; He wants to restore you to greater magnificence.

The story is told of an errant man who was not paying attention, and because of his own carelessness, he fell through a manhole and into a dark sewage spillway. His nostrils were filled with the stench, his clothes were saturated with the filth, and he had no way to make it back up. After hours of crying for help, a well-dressed businessman peered over and heard the cries of the man. After examining the man and his situation, he showed him his cell phone and promised him that he would use his cell phone to call 911, but he hurried on.

Several minutes later, a young woman was so engrossed in her texting that she nearly fell in, but the man’s yelling stopped her short. She looked into the hole,