Dr. Phil Bishop
Kinesiology
University of Alabama
If you’re like me, successes are quickly forgotten, but failures loom large in our memories. In the academic calendar year 2004-2005, I had FOUR presentation proposals in my area of exercise physiology rejected, which is a personal record! The more experience I have gained, the sharper the pangs of failure.
When I think back over my 25 years of grad school and teaching, I can recall lots of failures: grant proposals not funded, papers rejected, ideas that never got off the ground. I have had a National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health grant proposal (with revisions) scored too low for funding three times!
A High Tolerance For Failure
I warn my graduate students that working in research requires that we have a high tolerance for failure and rejection. Even my ideas of success and failure are flawed. Some failures are important, and some are not, and my ability to judge between these may not be very good.
Paul’s and Silas first visit to Thessalonica lasted only three weeks. Angry Jews started a riot, and the two had to leave the city by night. They could have felt like failures, but Paul believed that God was in charge. He would later tell the new Christians they had left behind: “You know brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure” (I Thess 2:1). What was seemingly an inauspicious beginning of ministry led to a thriving church that was a model to all the believers in the area.
After those four rejections last year, I received an offer for a lucrative consulting job that required immediate work. Not doing the presentations freed me up to take on this consulting. Likewise, sometimes when I think my teaching is for naught, I find out later that it has had a real impact on students.
Leaving The Results To God
As I have gained experience in my Christian walk on campus, I have recognized my own inability to judge success and failure. I learned something about success many years ago through Campus Crusade’s evangelism training: “Success in witnessing is simply sharing Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God.”
Do everything for the glory of God, and let Him sort out what is a success and what is a failure (Col 3:23). What seems like failure might be a gift from God. Anything I do that’s worthwhile — any real accomplishment – comes through Him.
© 2005 Phillip A Bishop