When is it better to fail than to succeed? You might answer, “Never! I’d always rather succeed than fail!” And that might have been my response also, until I came across a quote recently that made me think deeper about failure and success. It read, “I do not fear failure as much as I fear succeeding at what will not matter in eternity.”
That is a great little piece of advice. Many people spend all their time climbing the ladder of success only to discover they leaned it against the wrong wall. They were very successful and they may have even enjoyed the climb, but in the end they only met with disillusion and disappointment.
God has an eternally significant purpose for your life and for your time today. It would be much better to experience a failure while following His plan than to experience success in your own. Being successful at the wrong thing can be very dangerous because it is actually a trap to keep us from redeeming the time.
Rick Grubbs is best known as the host of “Redeeming the Time,” a one-minute radio program featured on hundreds of radio outlets around the world. He has spoken thousands of times on Biblical time management in all 50 states and 26 other countries. He is the author of the book “Morning Momentum: God’s plan for launching an unstoppable day”. He and his wife Carrie live in Salisbury NC with several of their 12 children.
