I don’t know what you think of when I say the words ‘failure to launch’. Immediately I think of a rocket unsuccessful in its attempt to be space-bound. It knows where it’s trying to get to, but it just can’t make it. Others might think of ‘Failure to Launch Syndrome’ whereby adult children are essentially unable to be independent and self-sufficient and so ‘fail’ to leave the family home as depicted in the 2006 RomCom ‘Failure to Launch’.

I felt like I had failure to launch when I went off to university. I dropped some a-levels in order to do other ones just so I could study a particular subject at university. So when I then dropped out after only one term of studying said subject I felt like a failure, aimless, like my engines had misfied, and I was never going to ‘make it’ to space. I was right back where I’d started, at home. Failure to launch.

Walt Disney is another one who might have felt this way. At 22, he was fired from his job for having “no imagination and no good ideas”. That’s gotta hurt. He then went on to acquire an animation studio which ended in bankruptcy. Failure to launch.

It seems that many of us will be able to relate to this idea of having a goal or dream, a destination we’re trying to get to, a person we’re trying to forgive, a habit we’re trying to kick, but no matter how hard we try, we just can’t get there, we keep ending up right back where we started. We’ve experienced failure to launch. And it hurts. It leaves us wary of trying again. Wary of getting back up. Wary of putting ourselves out there once more.

Psalm 145:14 says, “The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.”

We all know that Walt Disney’s story didn’t end with the insolvent studio. And despite feeling like I’d failed to launch after school, I can look back and see how God used that to teach me a whole bunch of things and set me in a new direction.

You know what though? I don’t think failing to launch is actually a bad thing. I think there’s something about Failure to Launch Syndrome that we actually need to adopt. The world says it’s a terrible thing to be dependent and we need to rely on ourselves in order to succeed. But the kingdom of God teaches us something very different. If we’re finding ourselves unable to launch, unable to reach the summit, unable to master the skill, unable to forgive the offender, unable to run the race, unable to exercise patience with the kids… then perhaps it’s because we’ve been relying on ourselves too much.

If we want to experience take-off then we need to come back to the fundamental truth that without Jesus we’re setting ourselves up for failure. So we get back up. Dust ourselves off. Acknowledge our need of the one who is going ahead of us. The one who promises to be with us. The one who won’t abandon or leave us (Deuteronomy 31:8) the one who will equip us with every good thing we need (2 Timothy 3:17) and we try again, not in our own strength, but dependent on the one who will meet all our needs – Jesus (Philippians 4:19).

If you’ve been knocked down. If you’ve experienced failure to launch. Don’t despair – it won’t always look like this. Fix your eyes again on the one who promises to pick you up, go with you and uphold you.

The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.
Psalm 37:23-24 NIV