What I learned this week: Good News for Cave Dwellers

"He who has never failed somewhere, that man cannot be great.

Failure is the test of greatness."

Herman Melville

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In John Ortberg's book

"If you want to walk on water, you've got to get out of the boat,"
he says...

"All of us face storms in life that threaten
to overwhelm us. Loved ones become ill.

Finances dwindle. We fail at something that's

important to us. Some people, when faced with adversity,

are energized and motivated to pursue

new learning, greater persistence, more vigorous

commitment, and more courageous hearts.

Others who face adversity feel

utterly defeated and discouraged.

They lose hope, want to hide,
and may resolve to never again

get out of the boat.


Living in a cave--a metaphor for a time of

difficulty and struggle--
aptly describes what it's like for us when

things don't work the way we thought they would.

No matter how we get there,
the cave of failure is a hard place to be.

Perhaps the hardest thing is that we often begin

to wonder whether God has lost track of us,
whether He really cares, whether He has forgotten

his promises. Yet God does some of His best work in

molding and shaping us
when we're in the cave.

Sometimes you are in a cave and no human action

is able to get you out. There is something you can't fix,
can't heal, or can't escape, and all you can do

is trust God. Finding ultimate refuge in God means

you become so immersed in His presence,

so convinced of His goodness,

so devoted to His lordship that
you find even the cave is a perfectly

safe place to be because
He is there with you." (my emphasis)

Ortberg empasizes that our ability to live in hope--to remain focused

on Christ during the storm-is largely dependent on what we feed

our minds. Ah, yes...reading the Holy Scriptures...God's Word to us.

This is obviously VERY key...but also what we choose NOT to

read/view/listen to is also VERY important, isn't it?

Young David lived in a cave, literally and figurtively.

But, in the midst of his cave dwelling David continued to trust God.

One of the greatest statements in Scripture is:

"But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God."

Ortberg says, "This is a great secret of spiritual life.

When every other resource was gone, when every prop was

kicked out from under him and every crtuch taken away,

when he reached the point of utter failure,

David encouraged himself in the Lord.

How does this happen? How do people living in the cave of failure find

the strength to venture out? What is involved in the art of receiving divine encouragement?

I believe that the starting point in dealing with failure is to honestly

face and name our discouragement. This is where David starts.

We read about this in Psalm 142, described in its superscription

as 'A Maskil of David. When he was in the cave.'

The psalm was associated with this era of David's life;

it was the cry of his heart when he felt destroyed by failure.

This is a psalm for cave dwellers."



With my voice I cry to the Lord;
with my voice I make supplication to the Lord.
I pour out my complaint before him;
I tell my trouble before him.



"The most frequent psalm consists of someody complaining

about God. And God is apparently not put off by this at all.

This is what David does in the cave. He gets quiet enough

before the Lord to get to the bottom of his pain and

discouragement. He feels it in his gut.

However, many people (you?) never have the courage to do this.

Instead, they seek to bury their disappointment deep down inside.

They put on a stoic exterior. They force a few smiles,

but in doing so they avoid experiencing the pain inside.

One of the great gifts failure can give us is the recognition that

we are loved and valued by God precisly when we are

in the cave of failure.

As long as your sense of being valuable and significant is tied to

your success, it will be a fragile thing. But when you come to know

in the marrow of your bones that you are just as valued and loved

by God when you have fallen flat on your face,

then you are gripped by a love stronger than success or failure."