Failure can crush you, hurt you, cause you to lose hope, to be bitter, to moan, to engage in self-pity, to become negative, to be ineffective... the list can go on.
Two weeks after I fell at the swinging bridge, I picked myself up and re-took my SOC. Even with my back pain, I recorded my best SOC timing. In the interview with my officer, he told me that he will put me in a shorter course because of my back injury. I was taken out of OCS. My dream of becoming an officer was shattered.
In SISPEC, I was supposed to be downgraded. Instead I was given many days of light duties. Till today, my warrant officer's words still resound in my head - In the first week of my SISPEC course he said, 'I will make you go through the whole ten weeks course and then put you out of course.'
A few years later, I met him. Unpleasant memories began to fill my mind. He called me from afar, gave me a big grin and said, 'doing well huh?'. I have every reason to be angry and bitter towards him for aggrevating my back injury again and again. But I simply held my head high and smiled back. In my heart, I've forgiven him. I have ORDed with pride and dignity.
I realised failure and pain have made me stronger. Without failure, I will never know success tasted so sweet. This success can never be measured. It has become part of me, my values and my character.
Remember this - you will never fully understand the meaning of success until you have failed before.
'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness'
2 Cor 12:9
I deliberately use pen to draw to signify that Jesus' death on the cross is an irreversible process. It is His perfect obedience to God that eventually took the sting out of death and set us free.
