On the Brink of Failure: How Do We Stay Committed in Spite of so Many Obstacles?

In “It”, author Craig Groeschel speaking of young children writes, “Imagine if, immediately following their first tumble, one of them thought, well, that’s that. I gave it a shot. Things didn’t work out. I’m not meant to be a walker. I guess I’ll just crawl the rest of my life. The fear of failure causes many…to think with this same kind of absurdity…Temporary failures are often followed by lasting success.”

I believe that effort and perseverance can facilitate triumph in situations that appear to be failures. It is not feasible to know every potential hindrance or obstacle that may arise when you are attempting to accomplish a task. It is impossible to account for every potential deviation from even the best-laid plans. It is, however, possible to be so committed to a goal that no hindrance, obstacle, deviation or roadblock will impede you from achieving the desired result. I have come to the realization that failure is a mindset. If we choose not to accept this mindset, we will have a far greater likelihood of doing what many say can’t be done and of going where many say we can’t go.

Recently, I took a trip to Africa. More specifically, I went to Burundi and Rwanda. In order to enter the country of Burundi you must acquire your visa before you leave your country of residence. You cannot, as was the case in Rwanda and Turkey, obtain the visa when you land in the country. We knew this and we proceeded to get the appropriate documentation, which included two copies of the visa application, a copy of our passport, a yellow fever card, a copy of our flight information, a money order, a self-addressed return envelope, and a personal invitation from someone living in the country. That’s right – you can’t even enter unless you are personally invited! I also had to get the applications and the passport notarized before overnighting everything to the embassy in Washington D.C.

This is where the story shifts. My overnighted package did not arrive the next day. The application says it takes 15 business days to complete this process. At this point I had 12 days. Next, my envelope got returned to the post office because, as the website said, no one was at the embassy to accept it. (Maybe they took a four-day weekend.) I was able to talk to the post office after being on hold for 55 minutes and although they promised to deliver it the next day it finally arrived at the embassy 3 days later. I called the Embassy of the Republic of Burundi in D.C. and after some difficulty navigating the language barrier it was brought to my attention that they needed my actual Passport and not a photocopy. (Apparently, they have now begun to put the visa directly into the Passport.) I now had four days to get this done.

I overnighted my Passport to the embassy, praying that it didn’t get stuck at the post office like last time. Once they received it I thought all was well. However, the embassy representative in Burundi who had to sign off on our applications attended a funeral the next day and didn’t go to the office. Now we had two days to get this done. Our contact in Burundi went to the embassy the next day to make sure that everything was completed and sent back to the embassy in Washington D.C. so that they could put the visa in the passport and overnight it back to us. My friend was leaving a few days before me and had to have his passport the next day. Thankfully, they sent the passport, with visa attached, the day before he left for Africa.

While this process was unfolding, my friend and I were making a series of countdown videos to raise support and awareness for our mission, which was in part to launch a chapter of his non-profit, MOP (Men of Purpose: Journey to Self-Discovery). I also had a Gofundme campaign going strong at this point. Had we failed or adopted the mindset of failing, we probably would have given up when these difficulties arose, especially since the timeline indicated it would be impossible. Robert F. Kennedy said, “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”

Had we given up, the blessings we received by teaching, fellowshipping, and worshipping with those young people would all have been lost. The impact of our testimony would have been negated and the mentorship program would not have been implemented. However, our minds were resolved – that would have been simply too great a price to pay.

             No one remembers those that failed because they are too busy hearing testimonies from those that persevered.