Why God Lets Us Fail


Three years ago on Christmas Eve, I wandered downstairs to my mom’s kitchen to grab a midnight snack. Instead of satisfying my late-night hunger, I was met by my mom sitting at the kitchen table with tear-filled eyes. She was holding a letter in her hands and as I walked into the room she stood up and, avoiding making eye contact with me, she said, “I didn’t know how to tell you about this. I’m so sorry.” I grabbed the letter as confusion and worry filled my heart. “Dear Sofia Prorok, I regret to inform you….” My stomach began to do backflips and I felt a rush of sadness take over my body. It was a rejection letter to my dream Physical Therapy school. We sat at the kitchen table together for a while as we cried together over my lost dream and prayed for God to direct my next steps.


I felt like a failure. I felt inadequate like I had fallen short. I felt unwanted and unqualified. But deep down inside my heart, I felt God whispering a sense of peace into this new season of the “unknown”. Strangely enough, I felt like God was telling me that everything was going to be okay. So I gathered up my strength and applied to 4 more schools.


I had two choices: hold onto my faith that God had called me to this career or abandon my calling at the first sight of an obstacle. It was uncharacteristic of me to give up, uncharacteristic of my Faith, so I pressed on.


I poured all of my hope into God those next few months. I prayed relentlessly and searched for signs that I was still on the right path. Through a series of events, I ran into one of my old professors who asked me to come to do research with him at the Physical Therapy department at my dream school. I eagerly agreed and joined him that following week. As I was helping to collect data, one of the professors in the Physical Therapy department walked in and started to ask me if I was interested in pursuing a career in Physical Therapy. I told him that I felt called to PT, but had recently been rejected by his program. He was shocked and pulled me aside, “Tell me why you want to be a Physical Therapist.” I told him my testimony and why I felt God was calling me to this career and he leaned in further with each word I spoke. He asked me to type up everything I had told him and send it to him as soon as possible. “I’ll see what I can do.”


Long story short, I received an offer for an interview a month later and was accepted into my dream program that following May. I am now in my third and final year of Physical Therapy School and can say without a doubt that all of this would not be possible without God. Without that moment of failure, God would not be at the center of my story. My calling would point to Him, but it wouldn’t be founded on Him. My story would not exist had it not been for His Divine Intervention that wove it together in the most unexpected way.


I am so thankful that I ran into that closed door because it forced me to dig deeper into my Faith than I ever had before. I had no choice but to believe in His Calling on my life with all that I had, to trust in His plan over my own, and to hold on tighter to Hope.


No one wants to fail. No one likes running into a closed door or watching their dream slip between their fingers, but sometimes it is necessary that we experience this so we can realize how Great his Power is over our lives, how much he truly loves us, and how much more incredible His plan is for us. Failure forces us to lay on rock bottom where all we can do is look up at Him.


We’re destined to fail at some point, but God doesn’t let us walk through those seasons alone. If you allow Him to, He will guide your steps and take you to greater places than you ever could have envisioned yourself. Dust yourself off, look up at Him, and let the Failure be the driving Force that strengthens your Faith.


1 comment

  • Raylene

    Thank you so much for sharing this! I truly believe this with all my heart and yet of course like all humans struggle when failure hits. It is always helpful to have others remind us that the only success is in Faith alone!


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