Failing and Growing - Parish Magazine May 2014

Finally after months of speculation and leaked reports over the Easter weekend Manchester United have confirmed this week that David Moyes is leaving.  Following on from Sir Alex Ferguson's 26 year reign as manager of the club was always going to be a tall order, but people can forget that when Ferguson took over in the 86/87 season Manchester United dropped from 4th to 11th in the league.  They had a brief return to form finishing 2nd in 1988 before slipping back to 11th in 1989 and even 13th in 1990.  It took some time for Ferguson to shape the team in the way that he wanted and whilst I am sure he was under pressure at the time, he was given the space to develop the team and from 1991 to 2013 they were never out of the top 3.  
However, when it is perceived that the club is failing then the fans, the investors, the board and the media all want someone to blame and the manager is a good target.  The crowd that enthusiastically greeted Moyes as ‘The Chosen One’ has been crying for his head and with his departure they are, for the time being, satisfied. 

Whilst we might consider ourselves to be vastly more civilised than Israel during the Roman occupation 2000 years ago, human nature is still very much the same; the crowd that enthusiastically welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem as God’s ‘Chosen One’ was a few days later calling for his crucifixion when he didn’t deliver the expected result of throwing out the Romans.

Now, whilst I agree that negligence, incompetence, poor character, etc might all be issues that mean people should be removed from their post and even face justice in the courts if they have broken the law, we are sometimes too quick to judge people when they fail.  In our day this is not helped, on a large scale, by media speculation and comments from high profile individuals or, on a smaller and more intimate scale, by mutterings and rumours within a club, organisation, political party, business, etc.

We can all get angry with people when they fail or let us down, but I think that we are often far too quick to judge and condemn others. We can also be very quick to judge and condemn ourselves. We all fail at times - in our work, in sport, in our relationships at work and at home, in all manner of things.  Perhaps our difficulty in forgiving ourselves for our mistakes is one of the reasons that we sometimes struggle to forgive others.

The only way to avoid making mistakes in life is to do nothing.  We all make mistakes at least once (I generally make them twice… just to be sure that they are mistakes!) the question is whether we learn from them, or just keep repeating them.

Peter, one of Jesus’ apostles, made a number of mistakes, but some of the biggest ones were on the night Jesus was betrayed. At supper Peter, trusting in his own strength, promised to follow Jesus no matter how much it cost, but a short time later that night:

• He fell asleep when Jesus asked him to keep watch,

• He ran away in fear as Jesus was arrested and

• He denied that he even knew Jesus (three times). 

The Bible says that Peter broke down and wept when he thought about what he had done.  However, after the resurrection, Jesus sought out Peter, helped him know he was forgiven and commissioned him again as an apostle. Just a few weeks later, having learnt to trust and rely on God’s strength, this same Peter stood up in front of thousands on the day of Pentecost and boldly declared the Good News about Jesus… and the Church was born.
God does not expect us to be perfect, but I do believe that He wants to help us to learn and grow.  As we step out in life we cannot help but make mistakes, and sometimes big ones, but hopefully we learn from them. 
My prayer for us all in this Easter season is that whatever we are facing - failures, setbacks, disappointments, difficulties in forgiving ourselves or others - we would know that we don’t have to face it alone, that we have a God of new beginnings, who wants to walk with us and help us learn and grow and become all that He made us to be.Rev Barry JacksonFan of Harrogate Town AFC(currently 8th in the Conference North League)