“Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me.” John 21:18-19
How often do we romanticize the history of our heroes? We see this in sports, politics, education, family, etc. While this is a natural tendency, it is harmful. For one thing, it facilitates dishonesty, which we must reject. This lends itself to another danger. What happens when the rosy façade gets removed, leaving us to see our heroes as they truly are? Also, when we fudge the details of our heroes, we rob ourselves of the tremendous value of perseverance and learning from our failures.
When we recognize that the ones we look up to learned and grew by virtue of their own failures, we understand that we too need not give up when we initially fail to complete our objectives. Though never using their failures to excuse our own, such prevents us from magnifying our failings to the point of giving up. The key is to see our heroes for what they are, flawed human beings who learned from their failings and became increasingly capable until achieving great success.
One of America’s most accomplished military leaders is a good illustration of this reality. When we think of George Washington, few recall his early military campaigns which ended in failure. We primarily recall how he took a rag-tag band of untrained soldiers and defeated the mighty British military, a feat that was logically absurd. Yet, how it ended is nothing like how it began.
In 1754, Washington mistakenly ambushed a French reconnaissance team that turned out to be a diplomatic party, sparking the French and Indian War. Then he built Fort Necessity to defend his troops against the French and Native forces he recently agitated, but the fort was positioned in a low-lying flood zone and was poorly designed. In the surrender documents which he failed to read, Washington unwittingly admitted to the “assassination” of the French leader Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, causing great political damage.
In 1755, he endorsed General Edward Braddock’s dogmatic march in rigid troop formation through the frontier woodlands, leaving them open to ambush and the loss of many soldiers. Between 1755-1758, Washington was unable to effectively protect the settlers as commander of the Virginia Regiment, leaving the frontier vulnerable.
In the early battles of the Revolutionary War, he repeatedly misjudged British troop movements, causing the loss of the Battle of Long Island in August of 1776 and the near collapse of the Continental Army. Ultimately, they lost New York City, forcing congress to flea Philadelphia. In November of 1776, he left 3,000 troops at Fort Washington in Manhattan, misjudging their defense capabilities and leading to their capture. All this forced his retreat across New Jersey. It was not until the Battle of Trenton on December 26, 1776, that things finally turned for Washington. From this point forward, Washington showed tremendous tactical wisdom, eventually leading to victory over Britain and the formation of the United States.
As fascinating as this history is, we are not here for American history lessons. The story of Washington’s eventual success has spiritual application for us. It is reminiscent of Peter’s growth in Scripture. He repeatedly stumbled in his service to the Lord, yet he eventually grew into a stalwart for the faith. To this day, Christians the world over learn and grow and take courage from a man who, like Washington failed many times before he won ultimate victory.
Joseph J. Ellis said of Washington, “Washington was not a naturally gifted military genius. What made him great was his capacity to learn from experience” (His Excellency: George Washington). None of us is naturally gifted in spirituality (Romans 3:23) so, like Washington, we must learn from experience until we become spiritually adept servants of our King (Ephesians 4:15-16; Hebrews 5:11-6:3; 2 Peter 1:5-11; 3:17-18).