“Failure is not an option” is the famous tagline of the 1995 film Apollo 13. The tagline was used to capture the creed that NASA operates by.  The Apollo 13 mission was supposed to land a spacecraft on the moon for the third time but it had to be aborted due to an explosion on the spaceship. NASA managed to bring back the crew onboard safely but overall the mission was a failure.

Nasa has a low threshold for failure due to the fact that a lot of money, time, and resources are spent on making these missions a success. If astronauts are involved then their lives are also at stake. Any failure for them would mean millions of dollars wasted and time that they will never get back and in some cases loss of life.

A lot of times our society operates with this same creed. “Failure is not an option”. We are not allowed to fail. We often judge people or get judged based on society’s definition of failure.

How often have you heard these statements below:

• If you don’t have a good job or a good education then you are a failure!
• If you are not married by a certain age then you are a failure!
• If you do not have kids by a certain age then you are a failure!
• If you don’t own a big house or drive a good car then you are a failure!
• If your marriage breaks then you are a failure!
• If you had problems with drugs or alcohol then you are a failure!
• If you don’t fit my definition of success then you are a failure!

Our society has a certain threshold for failure,  just like NASA and if you don’t meet their criteria for success, then you are a failure.

The bible has a totally different threshold for failure. Bible says in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. By this definition, in front of God, we are all failures. If you break God’s law and sin against him then you are a failure. This has been the same since the beginning of time. Ever since Adam and Eve broke God’s law and sinned against him mankind has been in a state of failure against God.

God says, “Failure is an option” because He knew we were going to fail even before He created us. That’s why he gave us all a failsafe in Jesus Christ so that we can be saved from our sin against God.

It is okay for you to fail in this world. We are all human and we are going to fail. Just remember that we need to worry more about failing God than failing in front of society. In the end, society can judge you as much as they want for your failures but it won’t affect your eternal life or your relationship with God. Also, we have no right to judge others for failing cause we have all failed against God.