“High failure towering o’er low success”…  I believe it was English novelist and traveler Alec Waugh’s father that was said to have penned these words…  sometime in the 1880’s in a prize winning poem at Oxford.

I’ve at times meditated and pondered on these words, and mused on their meaning to us as Christians and Children of God.

These words are a constant reminder that failure on a massive scale is an even keener spur than the immediate rewards of often routine success.

Out of these few words come many images: The Spartans dying at Thermopylae, brave men trying to scale Mt. Everest, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, or perhaps Cilaltépetl and Iztaccíhuatl, in Mexico…  Woodrow Wilson fighting for one world at Versailles…  the evacuation of Dunkirk…  and the many men and women who died in battle giving their lives for the country you and I live in.

I’m reminded of Hebrews 11 where the list of our spiritual family members is lengthy, not yet having received the promise.

Ah yes, even the recently celebrated Memorial Day here in the U.S. is often quickly skimmed over in haste to focus on the days business and/or cookouts and fun.  The men and women who gave their lives for “freedom” are soon forgotten.

All are well known examples of men and women struggling to draw upon reserves that they lacked, and they are a noble tribute to the dignity of the human race, a keener incentive to higher endeavor, than the laurels of a triumph of the past.

We’ve seen the central squares of Europe and other countries, littered with the statues of generals, admirals, and statesmen whose titles and deeds many have forgotten.  But still alive in memory are the men and women who attempted more than they could carry out, and left unfinished work that their successors completed in the years ahead.

I think again of the men and women of Hebrews 11, giving their lives in faithful service to God, knowing ultimately that their reward is great, and they did not fail in the ultimate sense.

Too often my friends, we are tempted by the effortless and easy thing.  That’s just too much work or too difficult we say.  At such moments raise your sights, look to our Creator, think big, attempt something difficult, even if in this life you do not quite bring it off…

“High failure towering o’er low success”.  These six words, at moments of hesitation, have echoed in my memory—a warning, and inspiration, and a challenge at times.

We know, as God’s children, if we grow not weary in well doing, that we shall faint not…  but we must be about that well doing, permitting Christ to live in us and realize alas, in this physical life this is not all there is…  and ultimately, we will not fail!  God’s Kingdom is coming, that’s a promise too that will not fail.

…as I close this letter, as I do every Friday evening…  as we enter His Sabbath…  reflect on this with me, will you?

And again, may God continue to richly bless you.  Our prayers and thoughts are with you daily!  Please do pray for us as well.