The Sting of Failure

When I first put on Uriah’s ring I took off my turquoise ring.  I no longer desired to show off my own accomplishments.  Somehow that now seemed repugnantly self-centered.  My sacrifice to earn the ring seemed insignificant next to my Savior’s sacrifice to earn my forgiveness.  It was not I who purchased my forgiveness with his precious lifeblood.  In fact, my ring had become a symbol of my failure to personally pay for my forgiveness.  And so it took the place of Uriah’s ring in my dresser drawer.  But as time passed I learned another Lesson of Life.

The Lesson of Failure

I had learned the hard lesson that my works are insufficient to gain forgiveness; the price tag was too high.  That lesson was taught by a hard teacher called Failure.  My failure was etched across my psyche.  It left me all too intimately aware of my unworthiness.  When it came to being worthy of forgiveness I might as well had be bound in chains.  But this failure was necessary for me to realize the true miracle of forgiveness.

I needed to fail so that I could understand it is impossible to be worthy of forgiveness.  I needed to fail before I could see my Savior holding out the gift of my forgiveness --- a gift purchased by his perfect life and his sacrificial death; his full payment of the demands of Justice.  He succeeded where I would always fail.  This gave my failure value because it was my failure which opened my eyes to hear the truth!