If this is how you’re going to treat me, why don’t you just kill me? I can’t face this trouble anymore.
Numbers 11:15
The normal human reaction to failure is despair. That feeling that there’s no way to fix the mess you’ve found yourself in is what makes you sound like Moses and say, “It’s all over. I might as well give up now.” But you can’t let that despair beat you. You have to realize that there’s nothing special about your particular drama. Missing an opportunity to do something right is a really ordinary thing that happens to all of us. If you ignore that and think something tremendously unique has happened to you, you’re probably going to sink into the pit of despair and not know how to get out, or even be willing to. The solution is in Jesus’ words to his disciples, who were just as depressed about their lot in life. He said, “Get up! Let’s go!” (Matt. 26:46). He didn’t let them wallow in their mistake. He told them essentially to get over it and to get going on to the next thing.
So what’s the next thing in your life? What is Jesus calling you to get over and to get on with? If you wallow in your past and refuse to move on, you recommit your failure all over again. Only when you obey and get moving do you lessen the sting and the power of your past failure. In fact, it remains a present failure until you get up and get over it.
If you don’t know what the next thing for you is, then let it be this and this alone: to trust Jesus completely and to pray continually. Then ultimately know that he works all things together for good—even your failures (see Rom. 8:28). By doing these things you let this failure move you forward instead of backward into hopeless despair.