Allowing for Failure
Let me remind you of that great basketball movie, Hoosiers. Gene Hackman’s character, the coach, does what he knows is right even though it is sure to cause him to be rejected by most of the people in the little town, even when it is sure to cause him (in the short run) to fail. He had decided it was better to fail for doing what was right than to succeed in any other way. He comes within a hair’s breadth of losing his job and being seen as a complete failure. Then, when his players finally start to get what he has been trying to teach them and it turns their season around and the team goes on to win the state championship, it becomes very clear that it was the coach’s very willingness to fail that was the key to his success. Had he not accepted the possibility of rejection and been at complete peace with himself about it, he could never have been truly accepted.
Donald T. Williams is Professor Emeritus of Toccoa Falls College. He stays permanently camped out on the borders between serious scholarship and pastoral ministry, between theology and literature, and between Narnia and Middle-Earth. He is the author of fourteen books, including Answers from Aslan: The Enduring Apologetics of C. S. Lewis (DeWard, 2023). He is a contributing editor of Touchstone.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
26.1—Jan/Feb 2013
Manly Chastity, Hedonism & the Law of Non-contradiction by Anthony Esolen
29.2—March/April 2016
The History of Family Strength in America May Reveal Good News by Allan C. Carlson
37.5—Sept/Oct 2024
The Death of Conservatism & the Negative World by J. Douglas Johnson
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
