In an interview in the Winter 2004 issue of Leadership Journal, John Ortberg talked about the teachable value of failure in ministry. He said it is important to, “Teach that failure is essential to learning. And it’s not the same as competence. ‘I read a study involving a pottery class. They divided students into two groups. One group would get A’s by making one really good pot. The other one would get A’s by making 50 pots, no matter what they looked like. Guess what? The students in the 50-pot group made the best pots! They’d make one and it would be no good. And they’d make another one, get a little better. They’d make another one, get a little better. They just kept learning how to make better pots.’ ‘The one-pot group put all this pressure on themselves over one pot, but they never learned how to make a pot well because they didn’t fail enough.’”
It is truly good to be reminded that it’s okay to make mistakes and fail time to time. As matter of fact, knowing that I don’t belong to “one pot” group, it is refreshing! 1 Cor. 1:27 says, “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.” I have read this verse inserting my name instead of underlined phrase. I found it to be very encouraging. May this encourage you as well throughout this week.
God bless!