SMALL FAILURES

Galatians 6:7 (NIV)
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.

            It was just a small thing. It was my turn to make a display for our summer mission project to Ukraine. I was to highlight the family I had lived with the past three summers using pictures and descriptions. It was the kind of project that could be done in an evening. But as things go, I got busy and Sunday morning dawned with no display ready. I got right on it the next week and had a fine display ready for the following Sunday. But, that experience sparked a thought in my mind. My life has been punctuated with small failures.

            The problem with small failures is that they build up. Even though each failure may not be a big deal, there seems to be a cumulative effect in our lives. The more we dismiss or overlook these small failures, the more they become a pattern in our lives. For example, if I show up late for a meeting once, and do not consciously make the adjustments needed to correct the problem, showing up late for meetings may become habitual. This can have devastating effects on our lives. Small failures left unchecked in a marriage can cause huge rifts that are hard to bridge. Small failures left unchecked in our workplace may lead to us looking for another job. Small failures left unchecked in our relationships may create an atmosphere of mistrust. Small failures left unchecked in our spiritual life can lead to a spiritual breakdown.

            In the book of Galatians, Paul wrote to a group of people who were ignoring the small failures in their lives. They were slipping further and further away from the Lord. In Galatians 1:6-7, Paul writes, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.

            The Galatians allowed small failures to continue, until they gradually drew them away from Christ. It is like being gently carried by the ocean current. At first, you don’t notice that you are drifting. After awhile, you realize that you have moved a whole lot farther from shore then you had planned. Small failures can have the same effect. Their impact on our lives seems meaningless at first, but after awhile we wake up to the reality that we have drifted a long way away from where we want to be spiritually.  

            Paul reminds us that small failures matter. We cannot play games with God and expect to avoid the consequences. Paul states clearly, a man reaps what he sows.

            We tend to overlook small things in our lives because we don’t think they matter. But we are very wrong. For example, if a person has two or three dandelions in their yard they may ignore them, thinking that, because there are so few, they don’t matter. But if those dandelions are allowed to go to seed, the next year there will be dozens of dandelions. The same is true in our lives. If we allow small failures to go unchecked, they will multiply. Once they set down roots in our lives, they are very hard to get rid of. If we let them go to seed, we will reap a harvest of failure.