Jonah was a prophet, tried to run away,I wonder about that third line, though. "When we really try, the Lord won’t let us fail." I don't think that's true. Certainly not in all cases. There are people who have "really tried" to break world records and create new invention and have failed. Perhaps "really trying" includes trying until we succeed, but even for those who refuse to give up, some things aren't meant to be. Even someone really tried to destroy the church, and devoted every waking moment of their entire life to that effort, I'm pretty sure the Lord would let them fail. Effort does not guarantee success.
But he later learned to listen and obey.When we really try, the Lord won’t let us fail:That’s what Jonah learned deep down inside the whale.
However, can effort guarantee success when we are trying to do something that God wants us to do? It doesn't always feel like it. I try to be a good person, and I know God wants me to succeed at that, but it's not easy, and I sometimes fail. Does that mean that I didn't "really try"? Possibly. No matter how hard I try, I could theoretically try harder, and I don't always feel like trying as hard as I can. I suppose what I need to figure out what it means to "really try."
But I had also wondered whether failure is an essential component of human development. We learn from failure. If we never fail, then we will have a smaller variety of experiences from which to learn. It could be that some lessons can only be learned from failure. If we have to fail in order to learn certain lessons, and if we need to learn those lessons, then at some point, it would be necessary for us to fail.
Fortunately, whether failure is an essential experience or not, we humans are very good at it, so we are at no risk of missing out on essential life lessons due to insufficient failure. But what about Jesus? If failure is essential, wouldn't Jesus be missing "an essential component of human development"? If it's essential that we fail so we can learn lessons that can only be learned through failure, then that means that Jesus would have had to have failed at something, which might conflict with His perfection.
However, to satisfy His need for failure, Jesus could theoretically have failed at something inconsequential, like carpentry, and learned all the failure-based lessons He needed to learn from that one experience of carving wood poorly, or it could simply be that we don't really need to fail at all. Yes, we learn from failure, but it's entirely possible that every lesson we could learn from failure could also be learned in other ways. Maybe we don't need to fail.
But if we don't need to fail, why do we? Is it because what we try to do conflicts with the will of God? Not always. Is it because we don't "really try" consistently? Possibly, though I'm still not sure exactly what that phrase really means. There have been times when I felt that I was really trying to do the Lord's will and I failed. Maybe I wasn't trying hard enough. maybe it wasn't actually God's will that I succeed, or maybe God sometimes does let us fail, even when we "really try".
2 comments:
It depends on what "failure" means. Alma really tried to preach the Gospel, but the people would not listen. As he returned home sad and discouraged, an angel commended him. He felt that he had failed, but God did not. No one listened, but he had been faithful. He went back on his mission got some converts. That, too, was success, of course. So there is the success of being/ doing what God wants regardless of the outcome and there is also the success that comes after failure and trying again. If we really try AND IT'S THE RIGHT THING, God won't let us fail ULTIMATELY.
Actually, what I think Jonah learned inside the whale is that you cannot hide from God.
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