Getting Back Up

Many considered Ulysses S. Grant a failure. A West Point graduate with extensive military experience, he had settled into relative obscurity in Galena, Illinois. But the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War in 1861 gave him an opportunity to begin again. Doors opened because of his credentials, and he quickly rose in the ranks to a position of leadership of the Union army. Yet many still doubted that he ever would succeed.

In the spring of 1863, he was the commanding general of Northern troops in a battle for the strategic town of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Stating a common conclusion, one officer said that the campaign was “being badly managed.”

A newspaper editor on the scene felt so alarmed that he wrote his friend, the Secretary of the Treasury. Grant, he reported, was just “a poor drunken imbecile” who was destined to “fail miserably, hopelessly, eternally.”

These criticisms were fueled by seven engagements around Vicksburg. The common consensus was that all were failures. But Grant did not give up. The eighth attempt (based on revolutionary strategies) resulted in a victory which became a turning point in the war. His determination had changed history.

Many people feel like failures. And experience failure. But the Bible tells us that no believer ever should give up. If we fall down, we need to “get up again.” To remember that God can use anyone who relies on Him. That He can use even our failures. That we can do all things through Christ (Philippians 4:13).

If you ever fall short or make mistakes, don’t give up or become discouraged. The Bible reminds us that no one is perfect. If you ever fall, remember to get back up. To learn from your experiences. To seek God for the strength and wisdom you need. To trust in Him. To stay faithful. To remember that you can do anything, through Christ.