“Failure is a better teacher than success.” Variants of this old saying have been attributed to a number of different people over the years. It has also been the rallying cry of sports teams, working professionals, academics, entrepreneurs and almost anyone else who has struggled, failed and been determined to come back stronger. People make it a point to learn from their mistakes, and countless generations of parents, grandparents, older siblings and extended families have laid their own flaws bare in an effort to keep younger loved ones from making the same mistakes.
Both one’s own mistakes and the mistakes of others can act as powerful teaching tools. Oddly enough, however, few Christians bother to look at what biblical sinners have to teach them. Many Christians take only the surface lesson of “do not sin” or “obey God” from such stories and never look any deeper. This denies them both wonderful teaching moments and important lessons.
The story of the Bible is ultimately one of redemption…
“The Bible has as many sinners as it has saints, if not more. Those sinners made terrible mistakes, but they can teach valuable lessons. Just as the tale of a parent’s failure can convince a child to walk a better path, so too can biblical sinners teach believers how to stay on the straight and narrow.
Sinners teach about responsibility, redemption, bravery and charity as well as the saints do. After all, when a person is down on their luck or struggling with past mistakes, it can be hard to see themselves in a saint.
A sinner, however, has faced the same challenges and failed in the same way. If that sinner managed to find their way back to God, a person can look at the sinner and say, “If they can do it, so can I.
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All reasons not to be too “religious”
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+ The Courage to Begin Yet Again. Perseverance.
+ Saint Francis de Sales on Spiritual Self Knowledge
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“… godly sorrow produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly sorrow produces death”. —-2 Corinthians 7:10
8 “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. — 1 John 120
When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is [spiritual] death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”. — Romans 6
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+ 80 yr old Dr. Ralph Martin: “Angels will come for us”
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“Sanctify them in the truth. Thy Word is Truth” — Jn. 17:17
Catholic Critique 