Wayfarer’s Tales — by
THE IMPORTANCE OF FAILURE
A friend shared a story with me recently. He talked about seeing a scruffy, dirty, elderly lady get on the same bus as him. While she searched every pocket to make her fare no one offered to help. No one met her gaze as she walked to a seat and he, like he is sure everyone else did, hoped she wouldn’t sit next to him.
They both got off at the same stop and stood waiting for a gap in the traffic that would allow them to cross the road safely. She asked if he would help her cross. He didn’t even reply. He just left her there, cursing her audacity.
But he looked back from half way across the road. And she was smiling.
Since that day six years ago I doubt if my friend has ever refused a request for help, no matter how embarrassing it might be. A little embarrassment, he decided, shortly after the bus incident, was much easier to live with than the guilt that came from not helping a fellow traveller. And it was amazing how quickly embarrassment changed to pleasure, which in turn changed to love.
But he never understood why the old lady smiled.
We beat ourselves up over our failures. But they often perform a real and very useful function. It’s a rare man or woman, boy or girl, who is kind and giving from the start and always does the right thing. It’s often only by feeling the sting of the wrong that we come to appreciate the delight of the right.
Much as he still cringes at the memory his failure, and his guilt because of it, made my friend a better man. It’s a situation that is all too familiar to me, as I am sure it is to you.
If we don’t fall, how can we rise?
Whether she knew it or not that old lady was there for a purpose. She was there to bring him down, so he could be built back up again.
And the smile?
That was her – or God through her – thinking, “Lesson
learned.
— ©
“Finding the extra in the ordinary.”
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