watershed: a community church in Stoughton, Wisconsin

As I was reading this week, I came across the section below in a book called Drops Like Stars by Rob Bell. As we consider pursuing our god-given dreams, this passage reminded me of the significance of failure in the process.

David Bayles and Ted Orland in their book Art and Fear tell the story of a ceramics teacher who divided the class into two groups - one group would be graded on how much they created in the designated time, while the other group would be graded on the quality of the one work they made.

In the end, it was the "quantity" group that ended up producing the works of most quality.

They conclude "that while the ‘quantity' group was busy churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes - the ‘quality' group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay."

This isn't true just for ceramics students.

When I'm meeting with my counselor and I use words like "mistake" or "failure" or "waste," he stops me.

He then reaches into his desk drawer and pulls out a sign and holds it up so I can read it - again

The Hebrew characters on the sign are translated on the bottom of the sign - "The God Who Wastes Nothing."

Now it's absolutely necessary for us to own and name and claim and make amends for our failures and mistakes and sins and wrongs where others are concerned.

But to stop there is tragic.

It isn't just a failure,

a mistake,

a sin,

a wrong...

It's also an opportunity

to grow,

expand,

evolve,

learn.

This is called the art of failure.

What every artist must learn is that even the failed pieces are essential.