One of the lessons retired US Women’s National Soccer team star Abby Wambach shared during her commencement address at Barnard College was how to make failure your fuel. The all-time leading scorer for Team USA, an Olympic and World Cup champion, said:

“Here’s something the best athletes understand, but it seems like a harder concept for non-athletes to grasp. Non-athletes don’t know what to do with the gift of failure. So, they hide it, pretend it never happened, reject it outright, and they end up wasting it. Listen: Failure is not something to be ashamed of, it’s something to be powered by. Failure is the highest octane fuel your life can run on. You gotta learn to make failure your fuel. We must embrace failure as our fuel instead of accepting it as our destruction.”

 Legendary basketball coach John Wooden agrees with Wambach. “No one can win every time he gets on the court or enters the marketplace with a new product or service. Mistakes, even failure, can be permissible so long as they do not result from carelessness or poor preparation. Losing can provide learning, thus preventing future errors.” Wooden believed the most effective leaders understand that failure is a necessary ingredient of success.

1 Peter 5 – God IS in Control

Peter closes his letter with thoughts on suffering and standing firm in the faith (5:9). He encourages believers with the promise that God is in control of any suffering we might encounter. Peter’s own life is an excellent example of someone whose past failures didn’t prevent God from accomplishing His purpose through him in the future. Peter went from failure to faithfulness by God’s transforming grace, which is available to us.

 The Kingdom Coach and Athlete receive God’s forgiveness when they sin and view themselves as God sees them, washed clean and freed from the guilt and shame of their past.