How Letting Failure Be an Option Frees You to Thrive

A reflection on risk, purpose, and legacy from the Clapham Sect

How Letting Failure Be an Option Frees You to Thrive

Picture yourself at base camp, staring up at a steep summit. 

Before you begin the climb, you have to decide what to carry and what to leave behind. 

That moment is much like moving into adulthood.

Many of us haul heavy packs filled with the need and pressure to prove ourselves to the world around us. 

We weigh our shoulders down with the belief that we must never fail. 

If you want to climb with speed and joy, I invite you to drop that load and consider failure as an option, instead of inherently fatal. 

When failure becomes an option, you become free to experience both the valleys and mountain peaks of life without becoming permanently paralyzed by either the highs, lows, or even plateaus of your story.

Why the World’s Definition of Success Leaves You Empty

Success that chases safety leads to stagnation—not purpose.

But our world often paints a very different picture. 

We live among people who act as if one misstep will ruin your future. Why? 

Grades and awards are easy to measure. Numbers and letters become the way we judge worth. 

The script goes like this: get high scores, choose a respectable major, find a well‑paying job, and retire comfortably. 

Any grade below perfect seems like a disaster. 

This fear is misplaced. Real life does not work that way. 

The only way to avoid mistakes is to avoid doing anything, and that leaves you feeling stuck and empty.

Real life is full of change that you don’t have control over. 

New tools appear, unexpected problems arise, and no plan, however intentionally laid, survives without adjustment. 

You will fail sometimes. And through that failure, you will learn and try again. 

People who refuse to try because they fear failing end up stuck. They may avoid embarrassment, but they never do anything that matters.

Drop the burden of constant success. Do not measure your life by letters or numbers. 

If you aim only for constant success, you will chase safety, not purpose. You might reach old age with an impressive résumé, but you will wonder why you never felt alive.

What Is Biblical Success—and Why Does It Matter?

“If you aim only for constant success, you will chase safety, not purpose.”

Success should be about fulfilling your purpose. 

The world would tell you to seek out that purpose through fame, fortune, or power.

These things are not inherently evil, but they make poor masters. If you chase them, they slip through your fingers. If you gain them for their own sake, they leave you empty. 

A better way is to see success as living the way you were created to live. 

For a follower of Jesus that purpose is clear:

You are told to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself. 

In Genesis, God placed the man in the garden and told him to work and take care of it. Work is not a curse. It reflects your Maker. When you work, you create value, help people flourish, and bring order to chaos.

This view changes how you see failure as well. If your goal is to create value and love your neighbor, every attempt, whether it works or not, teaches you something. 

When you try and fail, you learn what does not work. You grow. You adjust. You move forward. That is true in business, art and relationships. 

You also see this in your walk with God. You sin and fall short. God forgives you and teaches you. You lean on His grace and aim to do better. Failure becomes a way of growing rather than a mark of shame. 

Whoever fails the most learns the most.

If you follow Jesus, you have already admitted that you fall short. You know you cannot save yourself. That admission frees you. You can move into the world with courage because you know God forgives. You can take risks. You can dream. You can obey even when it seems hard.

What Happens When You Stop Fearing Failure?

When you live without fear of failure, you wake up. Fear of failure is like a nightmare. In a nightmare you run from a monster, but there is always something you cannot do. You cannot move. You cannot scream. You are stuck, or if you can move if feels like you’re moving through molasses. 

That is what fear does. It keeps you from acting. 

The only way to stop a nightmare is to wake up. 

Many people live half asleep. They drift and let fears corrode their joy. 

Wake up. Look at your fears. Name them. Face them. Reality may be ugly, but you can act in it. When you wake up, face your fears, you find freedom.

There are four kinds of freedom I think are worth naming. 

First is freedom from nightmares. When you stop letting fear control you, you stop living in dread. 

Second is freedom to act. You stop waiting for the perfect plan and you start moving. 

Third is freedom from the pressure of success. You stop living for wealth, fame, and titles. You live for something bigger. 

Fourth is freedom to thrive. This is not about being the hero in a movie. It is about doing what is set before you with excellence and joy.

Thriving Through Service and Relationships

So what does it mean to thrive? 

At Unbound we teach students to accept full responsibility for their lives. God gave you your life. Honor Him by receiving it. Do not blame others for where you are. Your path led here and it is yours. Now choose what you will do next. 

Thrive by serving others through everyday tasks. You do not need a stage or a title to be great. 

Be extraordinary at the ordinary. Show up on time. Listen well. Learn a skill. Keep your word. 

Small things matter. People who are faithful in little things become faithful in bigger things.

Thriving also means caring for those around you. We live in a time when loneliness is rampant. Social media allows us to “connect” with others without really connecting. 

Many young adults feel detached. When you prioritize relationships, you stand out. Your connections will enrich your life and even lengthen it. 

Invest in your family and your friends. Sit with them. Laugh with them. Learn from them. Look them in the eye.

You should also learn to create value. This does not mean you chase trends. It means you learn how to meet needs. You develop skills. You see where there is chaos and you bring order. You see where someone lacks something and you fill that gap. 

You fix a broken faucet. You build a company. You paint a picture. You write a song. You mentor a child. The opportunity to create value is as wide as the number of people in the world because each person has gifts. Our Creator made us creative.

To thrive you need to be resilient. You need to keep going when things are hard. You need to be awake and alive with eternity in mind. Life is not random. It is not just about today. The small actions you take now will echo into the future. You are not seeking applause but offering worship. You are not seeking a crown but seeking to hear, “Well done.”

What the Clapham Sect Can Teach Us About Lasting Impact

Takeaway: Big cultural change often begins with small acts of shared faith and courage.

History gives us a picture of what happens when a small group of people live with purpose. 

In England there was a network of friends and families known as the Clapham Sect. 

Historian Stephen Tomkins describes them as a “network of friends and families” bound by shared moral and spiritual values, by their religious mission and social activism, by their love for each other and by marriage. 

They worked against evil in their time. 

They fought against the buying and selling of people and called for the abolition of the slave trade. 

They labored to protect children and to bring hope to the poor. 

They met at Holy Trinity Church in Clapham and in each other’s homes. 

William Wilberforce, perhaps their most famous member, died before most of his dreams were realized.

Four years after Wilberforce’s death, a period known for high moral standards began in England. During that time it became unthinkable to own another human being. Crime dropped and families were strengthened. The members of the Clapham Sect founded or supported societies that campaigned for abolition and social reform. 

Their writings, societies and example in Parliament played a significant part in the development of Victorian morality;

the “ethos of Clapham became the spirit of the age”. 

Many of the freedoms we take for granted started with a small circle of friends who refused to accept the world as it was. They knew they might not see the end. They acted anyway.

A Vision for Generations

We need that kind of vision today. 

What if each of us took our faith seriously and passed it on to four people who also took it seriously? 

In two hundred years, how many millions of people would be serious about their faith?

Big cultural changes have been achieved by small percentages of the population. When you think in terms of generations, you see how small acts multiply. 

You may never see the end of what you start, but you can trust that God will do more with it than you can imagine.

Climbing Your Own Mountain

So what should you do? 

Speakers often say, “Strive valiantly, dare greatly, risk it all.” 

That’s fine, but not everyone will climb a mountain or start a worldwide movement. 

Do not feel less than because you do not make headlines. 

Instead, be fully awake and fully alive. 

Commit to doing the work that is in front of you day after day. 

Be extraordinary at ordinary things. 

Disciple a few people. Pass on what you have learned. Live faithfully. 

Hold one another up when trials come. Celebrate together when joy comes. Link arms so that you can enter the kingdom and enjoy eternity together.

Greatness may look like being present with your family. 

Valor may look like changing a diaper at two in the morning. 

Daring may look like telling the truth when it could cost you. 

Huge change often begins in small acts of faithfulness. That is the kind of valor we need. That is the kind of greatness we need.

You stand at base camp. Do not carry the heavy packs that the world wants you to carry. Let go of the need for constant success. 

Pick up purpose, love, responsibility, and courage. Begin the climb. Fail, get up, learn from your experiences, create value, serve others, pray, laugh, teach. 

The summit is not only for you. It is for your children and the people you influence. The world they inherit can be better because you chose to live fully awake and fully alive today.