What Is Failure?

     I've been asking myself this question for weeks now. How does one truly define failure? Yeah, getting a bad grade is technically failure. But what happens when there are no grades and we are out in the real world? Say you screw up on the job. Nobody died and no structure collapsed, you just missed a deadline or etc. Does that mean you should brand yourself as a failure forever? If so, how and when are you going to decide you aren't a failure anymore? I know I'm asking you, dear reader, a lot of questions but they are pretty important things to think about.
   
     Now that I've provoked some thought, let's keep going. I'm here to present the thought that maybe we as people tend to be extremely hard on ourselves. Or maybe it's just me and no one else understands. But I doubt that. I'm starting to learn that if something doesn't work out, maybe that's for a reason. Consider Jeremiah 29:11 for a moment. "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." I'll admit that sometimes when I read this I look at the first phrase, say "Okay, cool. God's got a plan" and then move on without reading the rest of it. But if you keep reading you see that this plan is to prosper you. That means that everything that happens to you is designed to work out for the best. Because who are we to decide what the plan should be? What could we possibly know about the "big picture"?

Just something to think about. As always, thanks for reading my rambling.

~ECR