FFTF Episode Episode 7 – E: Execute Despite Past Failures – The Courage to Try Again
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Speaker 4: [00:00:00] Welcome to From Failure to Fulfillment, where failure isn't the end. It's an acronym for Growth, friend, analyze, investigate, learn, understand, regroup, and Execute. I'm your host, Dr. Andrew Blackwood, also known as Coach Drew, and together we'll discover how God transforms our failures into steps toward Christ-like fulfillment.
If you failed once, twice a million times, then feeling anxious and afraid to try again makes a lot of sense. But I've learned that courage isn't the absence of fear. It's taking the next step. Despite fear a good portion of the past few years, my journey has been lonely and challenging watching others succeed while I wrestled with my own path.
It left me feeling left behind [00:01:00] and discouraged. The last step of our framework execute reminds us that failure isn't the end. It's an opportunity to act differently the next time, but how do you execute when fear, fatigue, and frustration have you pinned to the ground in the loneliest and darkest places you've ever been?
That's what we get to talk about in this episode. As I launched this podcast, I've officially been doing clinical work for over 20 years. My practice has supported individuals, couples, and families navigating mental health concerns, anxiety, substance use, pornography, infidelity, and more. Over time, I realized that I needed to specialize, so I chose to focus on supporting parents whose children were dealing with significant anxiety.
It seemed like the logical place to target in order to have the most impact in this generation and the next, and the [00:02:00] next. And the next one would think with all that's happening in the world, this focus, these kinds of services would be in demand, but they weren't. I typically don't promote myself aggressively, but for this period of time, I did the turnout.
It was far less than expected. I felt discouraged, frustrated, and even angry. And then as the Lord often does, he asked me some wonderfully heart searching questions. Why are you angry, Andrew? Are you gonna give up? Are you doing this to earn more or because it matters? Yep, he got me. The fear of poverty, the Achilles heel of my soul was acting up again as much as I wanted to serve families.
I [00:03:00] realized, well, he helped me realize that part of me was still driven by fear. Fear of not having enough. That fear was once again, compromising my integrity and distracting me from the value I had to offer. Regardless of how many or how few people signed up, so I committed. I would focus on serving Christian parents, supporting children with intense emotions for the next five years.
During these years, God instructed me to focus on value, relevance, and quality, and that's exactly what I've done. Creating webinars and courses, launching programs and facilitating groups online and in churches. I've been collecting inspiring testimonials and doing TV interviews. I even produced my own video series, but even then when everything seemed to be building momentum, a major provider of Christian content declined to [00:04:00] feature my work, and that was a tough one, but God instructed me.
To let all of the disappointments go, and with his help I did in order to execute, we get to have heart to heart encounters with our Lord. We get to let disappointments go and we get to receive the courage needed to rise from failure and face our fears. I've learned that execution, taking bold faithful action isn't about immediate success.
It's about stepping forward even when fear whispers stop. It's too hard or when discouragement tries to convince you that it's pointless. Failure creates opportunities to face our fears, to wrestle with God, and to choose to act in alignment with his calling. [00:05:00] As I mentioned before, the last several years have been hard, but not just professionally.
I've endeared the most loss and pain of my life within the last several years. I call it my wilderness period. The wilderness is a hard, dry, barren, and even lonely place where it seems that the only visitors you have are intense emotions, relentlessly discouraging thoughts, and the devil himself, the wilderness, is a place of desolation.
And I wondered, why is this happening to me? Why am I here? I wanted God to deliver me. Out of this painful place, but he didn't. He let me stay there, but I wasn't alone. God was with me. [00:06:00] Even in his silence, he was there. The wilderness isn't about punishment. It's about purity. Its refinement for the fulfillment of God's purpose.
Even though Jesus was perfect and without sin, he was led into the wilderness by the Spirit. So although being in the wilderness is hard, it is good. Although Jesus was in the wilderness, I think my wilderness experience was more like Jacobs. In Genesis chapter 32, if you're not familiar with his story.
Destined to become Israel. Part of God's larger story, deliverance for all the nations of the earth. Jacob started life with a desire to get ahead from the womb and the willingness to do whatever it took, even being deceitful. After years of shady dealings and creating hostile [00:07:00] relationships, Jacob is forced to face his fears and one night alone on the riverbank, desperately afraid he encounters God.
He wrestles with him all night. But when the dust settles. Jacob isn't Jacob anymore? He comes out changed. He leaves the wilderness as Israel a prince, a ruler, one with vested authority. It's interesting that Israel means one who was wrestled with God and prevailed. I used to think that meant that he prevailed over God, but it's clear that God had all the power all of the time.
Here's the heart of this lesson. It wasn't until Jacob refused to give up. It wasn't until Jacob refused to quit and fought through this experience, this process with God that he was changed and became who God always wanted him to be. [00:08:00] This is how he prevailed with God, not over God, but with God. Your wilderness season isn't about fighting against God or being punished by him.
It's about being changed by him. These lonely fear-filled and challenging seasons purify our hearts. They clarify our calling and deepen our walk with God. Remember in Matthew four verses one through 11, Jesus faces temptation in the wilderness and emerges ready. To fulfill his mission, allow your failures, your challenges, your suffering to prepare you to fulfill God's call in and through your life.
Have you been wrestling in your own wilderness season, tempted to believe that you've been left behind or overlooked? Have setbacks or disappointments revealed where your focus or motivations [00:09:00] need adjustment? God is not punishing you. He's purifying you. He's shaping your character, shifting your perspective, and making you fearless.
I wanna remind you that failure, fear, loneliness, and discouragement do not disqualify us. They refine us and prepare us to act with courage and faith. Let's pray together. God, thank you for walking with us in the wilderness. Thank you for teaching us that fear and failure are not the end. God, help us to execute faithfully, to act courageously Lord, and to trust that you at work.
Even when we cannot see the results, purify our hearts. God transform even our doubts into trust. [00:10:00] We need your help, and we thank you because you are faithful to give it. You're faithful to complete, to bring to completion all the good work that you've started in us. We thank you for these things. In Jesus' name, amen.
I'd love to hear your story of how God has used or is using your wilderness season to teach you, to strengthen you and redirect you. Thanks for spending this time with me. And remember, failure is never final when God is forming us. Until the next time, keep moving from failure to fulfillment in Christ.
Thanks for listening to From Failure to Fulfillment. If this episode encouraged you, share it with a friend and don't forget to like, follow, or subscribe so you won't miss the next one. Until then, remember, with God, failure is never [00:11:00] final.
