Success and failure can be seen in secular as well as religious situations.
Looking at sport is an easy example of both success and failure in non-religious circumstances.
That renowned character of doom and gloom, the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, is a prime example of both success and failure at one and the same time in a religious setting.
Jeremiah lived and preached for 40 years during the reigns of five kings of Judah until the fall of Jerusalem, besieged and captured by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 587BC.
Given his unhappy experiences, Jeremiah desperately did not want to be a prophet, a mouthpiece for the Almighty,but the divine compulsion won the day.
At one level, he was successful in the sense that he faithfully proclaimed to kings and people alike what God told him to say. He did it for forty years and very few, if anyone, paid the slightest heed.
He persisted despite all the strenuous efforts of those against him to silence or deny him.
His faithfulness is a powerful lesson for all preachers.
As much as he knew his message was true – it came from God himself so it was reliable and authentic, yet it had very little effect. He might well have given up altogether.
He knew failure at a personal level.
Jeremiah’s experience prompts the question ‘how do you tell the difference between truth and error in preaching ?’
Who ever said preaching was an easy option ?