The Failure Hall of fame
We need to learn to fail or fail to learn. In fact we need to learn how to fail well. The greatest people in history the ones we admire the most are members of the ultimate hall of fame but they also members of the failure hall of failure. Moses ran away to the wilderness, Elijah was depressed, Gideon was hiding in the barn and Peter denied Jesus. You can’t have one withou the other. They weren’t stumbling blocks but stepping stones. We must be willing to make mis-takes. The Harry Potter author JK Rowling has shared some withering rebuffs publishers sent to her alter ego Robert Galbraith, in an effort to comfort aspiring authors. Rowling posted the rejection letters on Twitter after a request from a fan. They related to The Cuckoo’s Calling, her first novel as Galbraith. But Rowling also saw Harry Potter turned down several times before the boy wizard became one of the greatest phenomena in children’s literature, with sales of more than 400m copies worldwide. Asked how she kept motivated, she tweeted: “I had nothing to lose and sometimes that makes you brave enough to try.” When she pitched under the name Galbraith without revealing her true identity, she faced many more snubs. Since then, Galbraith has published three successful novels but the first was rejected by several publishers, and Rowling was even advised to take a writing course. Learn how to fail well and invite someone to take a closer look at Christ and his church
