
April 23: Faith Through Personal Failure
God lists Samson and Jephthah in His Hall of Faith. That should give all of us hope.
Jephthah made a rash vow that cost him dearly, a moment of poorly considered words spoken in a high-pressure moment that cannot be undone. Samson’s story is even more publicly catastrophic: a man of supernatural strength who repeatedly surrendered that strength to his weaknesses, who was deceived by a woman he loved, stripped of his gift, blinded, and chained to a grinding stone in his enemy’s prison. These are not tidied-up stories with minor flaws. These are lives marked by significant, consequential failure.

