Is There Anyone Who Fails?

School has started back for students from preschool to college. Along with school comes homework, learning, tests and grades. If it were not for those things, school would be a fun place to be!

One would expect a normal school to be a place where teachers who are trained for certain subjects, pass on their knowledge to students. A normal school should also have a professional and knowledgeable administrative staff, who can run the school, in a way that is both efficient and appealing to the public. After all, if your school has a bad reputation, parents are less likely to send their children to you. 

I read two articles recently about two schools where one might think twice before sending their children to them. The first is from a high school in North Carolina. On the road outside the school is the word “school” in huge white letters to mark the school zone. However, the large letters on the road are misspelled. They read, “SHCOOL.”

Now I realize that this grand-scale typo is not the school’s fault. It was the contactor who painted the road who made the error. However, most people driving by would automatically blame the school for the misspelled word.

The second school is Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Drake University recently launched a new advertising campaign for their school. The idea of the campaign is to get the message across that Drake University’s experience, plus your passion is a great combination. This sounds like a pretty good advertisement, until you see how it is marketed.

They have shortened the campaign to something easily remembered. Sure enough, it’s easy to remember! Here is the way the ad reads. “D+ The Drake Advantage.” Huh? D+? Is that all your school expects? Maybe I should have attended there. I could have been the valedictorian! The school paid a lot of money to a marketing company to come up with a D+ for their ad campaign, so they say they’re sticking to it for a while. I say the marketing company should get a D+ for not noticing the problem.

We all make mistakes. Even schools, teachers, churches, pastors, police, doctors, and everyone who is human make errors from time to time. While we all know that humans make mistakes, for some reason it seems tragic when someone we look up to makes them. We hold some people in much higher regard than others and expect them to perform accordingly.

This expectation of perfection is the reason it hurts so much when those we regard so highly fall into errors of judgment. We want someone to inspire us, who we can look up to. We want someone to follow, who is above normal failure. We want someone to love us, who will never be unfaithful.

There is only one who can fulfill those expectations and more. Jesus will never fail. He is the only man who ever lived who did not sin. He resisted temptation and even defeated death. He is perfect and calls you to His side. He wants to love you, lead you and inspire you in ways you cannot imagine. If you have been “let down” by people who you wanted to be perfect but who never were, then allow Jesus to show you what true love really is. Ask Him into your life today and learn how to give Him more and more of you until you trust Him completely.

If you have never trusted Christ with your life before, please talk to a Christian friend or your minister about it. If you do not have either of those, you are always welcome to contact any staff person at this church, and they will be happy to help. 

Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever. (Hebrews 7:24-28 NIV)