For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicket shall fall by calamity. Proverbs 24:16

 April 13, 1970, the Apollo 13 spacecraft had experienced a major malfunction, putting the lives of 3 astronauts in jeopardy. Most everyone in the NASA control center felt like they were doomed, but Flight Director Gene Kranz famously quoted, “failure is not an option”. From that moment on the team of engineers came together to bring a damaged space ship safely back to earth.

 Life can be compared to this incident, where we try to live right, doing the right things, keeping ourselves out of trouble, and staying true to the one’s we love. But oftentimes we have moments when we feel like a failure. Maybe it’s a sin we struggle with, an attitude that is anything but positive, or the smallest of things get under our skin resulting in outburst of anger and toxic words fill the air. There are countless number of things that seem to wreck our lives, our character, and impact the lives of ones we love.

 Let me encourage you to say, failure is not an option. In today’s verse, Proverbs 24:16, it defines success and failure. Success is falling down and getting back up. It’s persevering under the weight of guilt and shame, to make things right and work towards improvement.  Failure on the other hand is letting our sin, and our wrongful actions take us down to the point where we don’t get back up. It’s giving up on yourself and others.

I John 2:2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

 Thankfully God never intended for you to stay down. He gave His only Son, Jesus Christ, to make payment for your mistakes, so you can rise back up after every fall. God gives us His Holy Spirit to help change the pattern of lives to progressively reflect the character of Jesus Christ. It’s a process that can take years and years, but eventually it will be perfected upon entry into the presence of God’s Heavenly home. A welcoming of ‘well done my good and faithful servant”. Failure is not an option for you, keep getting back up!