Beyond Failure

When I was young, it seemed there wasn't anything I couldn't do. I had energy and lots of time to try things as I searched for what I was to do in life. In this search I joined the U.S. Navy and ended up on an island in the Pacific Ocean.

I was there because I failed a test.

At the Naval Training Center in San Diego California, I went through all of the Boot Camp drilling, and instruction given new recruits. I excelled in everything they put me through. But there was this one simple test that all recruits had to take which changed the course of my life.

We weren't told what this test was for as we stood in line to take it. We didn't know until each of us were tested. When it came time for the recruit in front of me to be tested, like the others before him, he sat down at a small table as a Hospital Corpsman opened a flip cart in front of him. I couldn't see what was on the chart, but the recruit rattled off a number when he saw it. The Corpsman then flipped the page and the recruit rattled off another number. After a couple more pages he was given the "okay" to move on and join the others who had been tested.

Then it was my turn.

I sat down and the Corpsman opened up the chart.

He stood there waiting for me to say something.

I realized that I was supposed to say a number, like the guy before me, but I couldn't remember what it was. So I just said the first number that came to mind.

The Corpsman paused, looked at me, and then flipped to the next page.

I picked another random number and blurted it out having no idea what this test was for.

Then the Corpsman called over a co-worker and said, "Hey, come look at this".

As this guy came and stood next to the table, the Corpsman flipped to another page and asked me what I saw.

Again, I threw out a number and the two of them laughed.

They said, "Don't you see the number formed in the circle of colored dots?"

"Uh, no" I answered.

Then an officer came over to the table and looked at my enlistment papers. After looking them over he said, "Well Seaman...it looks like you won't be an Electronics Technician that you signed up for. You can't see the colors you need to see to work on electronics."

Then I understood what they were testing for. It was for color blindness...and I failed. I could distinguish some colors, but others I couldn't.

The officer then said, "Since you like being around electronics, how about becoming a Cryptologic Technician? You still get to operate electronic equipment and do other interesting things."

Disappointed, I resigned myself to the situation and said, "Okay. Sign me up."

I had excelled in my High School electronics class. I really enjoyed fixing electronic equipment and got straight A's on all my tests. Whenever I had difficulty identifying the color code printed on a resistor needing replaced, I just asked one of my classmates to tell me what it was so that I could replace it with the right one. So when I enlisted in the Navy, I naturally requested training to be an Electronics Technician.

I didn't realize it at the time, but there was something purposeful at work in the failure I experienced.

After finishing my "Class A" training for Cryptologic Technician in Pensacola Florida, I was sent to San Angelo Texas for advanced training after which I entered the world of Military Intelligence. I became a "Spook"...a "Ghost in the Machine" so to speak. I was then sent to Japan for my first duty station and then to the island of Okinawa which was still under U.S. control. It was there that I met Marine Gunnery Sergeant Truitt, a man whom God destined that I meet.

It was this man who shared the truth and love of Jesus with me. Because he did, my life was forever changed. Had I not failed that simple test in Boot Camp, I wouldn't have been sent to Okinawa and I wouldn't have met Chuck Truitt.

God used a "failure" to bring me to a specific place and time so that He could do an eternal work in my heart. The work He did on that island in 1978 saved me.

I believe we all experience failure at some point in life. Sometimes it's not due to any wrong doing on our part. Other times it is. And when it is, we believers are given the opportunity to humble ourselves, repent, and allow God's loving discipline produce in us what we need to become more like Jesus. Because it's in our love for Him that God causes everything we experience, including failure, to work for our good (Romans 8:28).

Do we believe this?

If we do, then a failure in our past can't keep us from doing what God wants us to do in the present.

As this world winds down, God is still doing eternal work in people's hearts. He's doing so through those who love Jesus, who are imperfect yet willing.

Are we willing?

Are we willing to let go of the past and fully embrace God's restoring forgiveness?

Are we willing to forget what lies behind and press on in our high calling to be like Jesus ministering His love to a dying world...even if it's just our neighbor?

Jesus told us what's coming. We know it won't be easy to live for Him in the days ahead. It won't be easy but it will be good, eternally good, as He moves us from failure to fruitfulness...

…and the glory that awaits us beyond.

About the Author: Kevin Carmody and Tammii Carmody came to know Jesus as their Lord in the late 1970’s. During the years following, they participated in a number of short-term ministry trips to Central America and Western Europe while raising their two children. In the mid 1990’s, The Lord asked them to consider Abraham’s “other” descendants who lived in the Middle East...the Arab nations. In response, they resigned executive positions that they held in their occupations and joined ALL NATIONS in 2003 to receive ministry training as field workers. The Carmodys have lived and served in the countries of Oman, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, and Germany, ministering to both Arabic and Farsi speaking peoples with the love and forgiveness of Jesus. They now reside in Arizona.

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