Introduction
I’m grateful to have this opportunity to share some impressions and experiences with you today. This is a humbling and surreal experience for me. Twenty-six years ago at the tender age of 18, I stepped foot on this campus for the first time. The campus looked much different back then, and so did I. That semester, I attended my first devotional. I could not have imagined as a first semester Ricks College freshman that I would one day be a devotional speaker. It is really a miracle, and I’ll provide evidence for that later in my address.
I’ve enjoyed reading and learning from your insights on the discussion board regarding failure. I appreciate you sharing your failures for the benefit of others. As a good sociologist, I need to first define or operationalize the terms that are at the center of my remarks today. First, to many the title of my talk, “The Purpose and Blessings of Failure,” may seem like an oxymoron. An oxymoron is a combination of contradictory or incongruous words. While the title of my talk may at first appear to be an oxymoron, it is my hope that by the end of our time together today you no longer see it as such. Second, in sociological terms, we use the term functionality to identify the purpose for the existence of social structures in society. It is maintained that social structures exist in society for a purpose or reason. It is the goal of the sociologist to determine the purpose of the structure. In other words, to determine what contribution the structure makes to the stability of society. If a social structure exists throughout time and in most or all societies, then it must be functional or it must have a purpose. Finally, I must address failure. The word “failure” is derived from the French word “faillir,” which means to almost do something. I conducted a very scientific search on the internet to discover other common terms used to describe failure. You may recognize the following: lack of success, non-fulfillment, defeat, collapse, fiasco, debacle, catastrophe, and disaster. Some more informal synonyms include: flop, megaflop, washout, dead loss, snafu, clinker, dud, and no-go. If these synonyms don’t give a clear enough picture of what I mean by failure let me give you two examples to illustrate my point.
Example 1: The Eruption of Mt. St. Helens
I’m a Washingtonian at heart. I grew up in the small town of Benton City near the Tri-Cities. I later attended high school in Castle Rock, near Vancouver, Washington. I love the diverse nature of the state. One wet, cloudy, and green side and another dry, sunny, desert side. I love the rivers, mountains, and hills of the state that give it its character. One of the major mountains in the state is Mount St. Helens. This is a picture of Mount St. Helens prior to 1980. You can see the majestic peaks, green forests, and beautiful rivers surrounding it. Although beautiful, this mountain wasn’t intended to always look like this. There soon came a devastating failure that would change this majestic mountain forever.
I was six years old when on Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted in what is called the “most significant volcanic eruption to occur in the contiguous 48 states since 1915.”
At around 8:30 a.m., an earthquake caused the north face to slide away, creating the largest landslide ever recorded. This allowed the partly molten, high-pressure gas and rock in the volcano to suddenly explode northward toward Spirit Lake in a hot mix of lava and pulverized rock. An ash column rose 80,000 feet into the atmosphere and deposited ash in 11 other states. 1 At the same time, snow, ice and several entire glaciers on the volcano melted, forming a series of large volcanic mudslides that reached as far as the Columbia River, nearly 50 miles to the southwest. Fifty-seven people were killed, as well as thousands of animals, and thousands of square miles of forests were completely destroyed. [1] To call this a snafu or fiasco would be an understatement. The best failure synonym for this event would be disaster or catastrophe.
Could it be possible that a failure of the magnitude that was the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption had a purpose or could have been a blessing to anyone or anything? Remember, for something to have a purpose, it must exist across time and in a large variety of places across the earth. How long have volcanos existed? It is estimated that it takes 10,000 to 100,000 years for a volcano to develop. Where do volcanos exist? There are an estimated 1,500 volcanos spread throughout the earth, on land and under the ocean. If this is true, the answer must then be yes. While the immediate or short-term impact of a volcanic eruption is devastating, there are clear long-term benefits or purposes for them. This photo is a picture of what Mount St. Helens looks like today. Volcanos are a result of the cyclical renewal of the earth’s crust. Furthermore, rich volcanic soil, when combined with rain, can bring rich growth to plants, which grow and are then consumed by animals. Within a few years of the 1980 eruption at Mount St. Helens, plants and animals began to return to the landscape. While the mountain definitely experienced a catastrophe and was forever changed, the disaster was for a purpose that brought renewed life and growth to the landscape.
Example 2: My first semester at Ricks College in 1992
My second example is a much more personal one, but the same principles apply. From the moment I stepped foot on this wonderful campus, I loved it. There was a very special feeling on campus, which I would later learn was called the Spirit or the Spirit of Ricks. Although I felt the Spirit, I was not prepared to learn from it. I needed a very important event to occur in my life. I needed failure, and I got it my first semester. These are the grades earned from my first semester, Fall 1992 at Ricks College. I know I share this at the risk of losing my employment and the respect of my colleagues and students, but I hope it will be beneficial to some of you. As you can clearly see, I flopped Math 101 and I mega-flopped Introduction to Racquetball. You have to really work hard to fail racquetball. I now believe that I needed to fail before I could succeed at college. It was humbling, it was concerning, and I knew I needed to change, to do something different. These grades encouraged me to change, and as I did, I soon began to experience some of the blessings of this failure. As I struggled in school, I turned to my Savior for help and strength. I developed great relationships with my bishop, my family home evening group, and my resident assistants in the dorms. I got permission to obtain my patriarchal blessing, which I received in a classroom in the basement of the Smith building. I interviewed for and submitted my application to serve a full-time mission for the Church. I received that call and opened it with my family home evening group in their apartment in Lamprecht Hall. The academic struggles I experienced during my first semester were a blessing that established the foundation for my future academic and spiritual successes. Failure changed me forever.
Let’s apply this example to the criteria of functionality or purpose. How long have college students been failing college courses? Since colleges and universities began teaching them. Who has failed or done very poorly in a class? Again, we reach the same conclusion. If there have been students who have done poorly in classes since the beginning of the education system, and if different types of students do poorly in classes, then academic failure must be functional or have a purpose. In my first year at Ricks College, that purpose was twofold. First, I needed to be humbled and learn to rely upon the Lord for any type of struggle I had in my life. Second, I needed to change how I went about my academic studies. I needed to have a plan. In devotional last week, President Eyring challenged you to “seek guidance and spiritual confirmation in planning your college education.” He promised that “Heavenly Father [will] reward your efforts to humbly and persistently seek his guidance.” He also encouraged you to talk with fellow students, professors, parents, and role models. [2]What President Eyring encouraged you to do last week is exactly what I did my first year at Ricks College. I prayed more earnestly for guidance. I sought out good friends within a family home evening group, met with an inspired bishop, and was profoundly influenced by returned missionaries who were leaders in my ward and housing unit. I can testify that if you heed President Eyring’s counsel from last week, it will turn a potential fiasco into a certain success.
Failure bringing purpose and blessings is not an oxymoron
These two experiences in my life have taught me four important lessons. 1) Failure is devastating in the short term. Personal failure shakes us up emotionally, physically, and spiritually. It forces us to question everything. It is destabilizing to the point that you just want to run and hide to do anything you can to avoid or cope with the discomfort. 2) Everyone experiences failure. Failure has been around since the beginning of human life on this earth and will continue until life is gone from it. 3) If everyone experiences failure today and over time, there must be a purpose for it. It must be meant by a loving Heavenly Father to be part of our lives. 4) The long term benefits of learning from failure are monumental and outweigh the discomfort or pain associated with it. Failure, if learned from, can be a tipping point in our lives from which great success can come.
Is it possible then that something we have characterized so negatively and tried so hard to avoid in our lives is actually a blessing? Can learning from failure bring purpose and higher meaning into our lives? Were we actually meant to experience failure as part of our earthly experience? Brothers and sisters, I submit that the answer to these three questions is a resolute “Yes!” Isn’t it wonderful that we fail? Isn’t failure awesome? We should be grateful to a wise Father in Heaven for loving us enough to allow us to fail so that we can learn to come unto him.
Every failure in our lives can and will be for our good if we learn from them. Romans 8:28 states, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” [3]Translated into informal terminology, we could restate this as: “Every debacle or clinker in our life will be for our good in accomplishing the things which our Father in Heaven would have us accomplish in this life. Failure shapes us in ways that allow us to accomplish the Lord’s purposes for us. Failure shapes us in ways that no other experience in life can.”
Success and Failure
There is a direct link between failure and success. Success is often the outcome of experiencing failure. Having success in anything requires trying to do something and frequently and consistently almost doing something or failing. A wise sister in my ward when sharing her testimony about taking an online course said this: “If the horse isn’t bucking, you aren’t earning any points.” Now I’m not familiar with horses or rodeo competitions, but this quote still made an impression on me. What will be the experiences in life from which you will learn the most? It will be the most challenging experiences in life from which you will learn the most. These failure experiences are unforgettable due to the pain and discomfort that is associated with them. They are life-altering due to the change that is required within us in order to overcome them.
Failure is a necessary but not sufficient condition for achieving success. Hall of Fame Pitcher Nolan Ryan said, “Enjoying success requires the ability to adapt. Only by being open to change will you have a true opportunity to get the most from your talent.” [4] This statement helps us clear up a misconception about failure. Just failing and failing spectacularly isn’t enough in and of itself to experience success afterward. We must learn from our failures, and that learning must lead to change. We must avoid a defeatist mindset that infects some who experience failure. While there are real struggles and real life experiences that make it tougher for some to succeed, we must never give in to the fixed mindset that convinces us that there isn’t anything we can do about our circumstances. No matter what background you come from, no matter the failures you’ve experienced in life, you have the opportunity to overcome your failures and experience success as long as you learn how to change.
In the October 2017 conference, Sister Sharon Eubank recounted a daring rescue of two young boys caught in an ocean current taking them farther out to sea. A man on the beach suggested forming a human chain in order to reach the boys out in the ocean. It worked, and the boys were rescued. It would have been easy for everyone on the beach to look at the options and say, “There isn’t anything I can do. We’ll have to wait for the lifeguards to come. If I go out, I’ll get trapped too and will be in danger.” This man didn’t think about what couldn’t be done. He thought about what else could be done. Is there another way to solve the problem? Sister Eubank said one line in her talk that really stood out to me. She said that “innovation and creation are spiritual gifts.” [5] This statement made me reflect on change as being a spiritual gift. I had never thought of change, which includes innovation and creation, as spiritual gifts. The work of developing the spiritual gifts of innovation and creation will occur as you work through your failures.
Scriptural Insight as it Relates to the Purpose and Blessings of Failure
If we are to move forward embracing failure instead of trying to avoid it, we must better understand the purpose of failure and its requisite blessings from the Lord’s perspective. In Mosiah, King Benjamin is in the process of concluding his remarks to his people. The example of failure that he is discussing in these verses is sin. Sin could definitely be described as a lack of success, defeat, or non-fulfillment of covenants made with the Lord. King Benjamin is discussing the purpose or what we are supposed to learn from our failures in these verses: “I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel.” [6] We fail so that we remember the greatness of God. We fail so that we remember His goodness and long-suffering toward us. We fail so that we develop greater humility. We fail so that we develop the skill of going to Him in daily prayer. And we fail so that we will stand steadfastly in faith in that which is to come. Isn’t that great? Failure is really cool!
King Benjamin teaches us about the blessings associated with the learning that comes through failure. These blessings include: “[Y]e shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true.” [7] Always rejoicing, being filled with the love of God, retaining a remission of sins, increasing our knowledge of that which is just and true—these blessings identified by King Benjamin are very powerful. They can create a lasting change within us, leading us toward a path of success—the type of success that allows us to achieve the purpose for which our Father sent us here. These blessings give us hope that, although learning from failure takes work and effort, the blessings coming out the other side far outweigh the associated pain and discomfort.
Despair and Failure
No matter how hard we try and no matter how much knowledge we possess of the success that can come out of failure, despair is a common response to it. We must be thoughtful of others who are experiencing despair in failure and seek to serve and uplift them in their difficult circumstances. There is too much criticism and vicious personal attacks from every direction in this world. Those struggling with failure don’t need anyone else, especially a loved one, to add to it. How do you help someone move from experiencing despair to experiencing success in their failure? Love them as the Lord loves them. Get to know them personally and genuinely care about them and their welfare. Serve them. Inspire them with your actions. Sometimes a smile, a hello, can go a long way in motivating others to change. If you think about how the Lord helps each one of us deal with life’s failures, it is through His actions of love, kindness, and forgiveness. You can’t force someone to see the blessings of their failure. They must come to that knowledge themselves and act on it. Anger, disgust, and criticism are very poor motivators for life-long and eternal change. We can inspire, we can uplift, we can say, “Just keep going. You’ll get there.” Although the road is long and there are stumbling blocks all along your path, you can do it! There will be blessings at some point along the way as you experience success in your failure.
No one has given more powerful lessons on life’s challenges than Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. I now share with you some inspirational words from Elder Holland to those who are experiencing despair in their failure.
Closing
My challenge for you today is to take a failure that you have experienced in your personal life and identify the blessings that have come out of this experience. Furthermore, if you know someone who is currently experiencing despair in their failure, reach out to them in support and understanding. I promise that you both will be edified as you help each other walk through life’s challenges together.
From today moving forward, may we have an eternal perspective of life’s failures. You may even joyfully shout the next time you fail, “Yes, I failed! Isn’t that great?” Or if you see me walking across campus you can shout out, “I failed Brother Meeker, and it was awesome! I learned so much!” We were meant to fail by a loving Heavenly Father who cared enough that He allowed us to do so. Likewise, we were meant to learn and grow and change as a result of these painful experiences. There is a purpose behind our failures. Those purposes include increasing our faith, increasing our humility, increasing our reliance upon prayer, and enhancing our understanding of the goodness and long-suffering nature of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As we learn and grow from our failure, we will receive blessings. These blessings include that you will always be filled with the love of God, that you will always retain a remission of your sins, that you will always rejoice, and that you will grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you. I so testify, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] “1980 Eruption of Mount St. Helens,” Wikipedia, last edited on May 1, 2018.
[2] President Henry J. Eyring, “Preparing to Lead”, BYUI Devotional, April 24, 2018.
[3] Rom. 8:28.
[4] Nolan Ryan
[5] Sharon Eubank, “Turn On Your Light,” Ensign, Nov. 2017; lds.org.
[6] Mosiah 4:11.
[7] Mosiah 4:12.