Failure as the Means of Encountering God

I am reading a very small but powerful book called "Abandonment to Divine Providence" by Jean Pierre de Caussade. Caussade was a French Jesuit Priest in the 18th C.

I was struck by this passage:

"Let us then endure without annoyance the humiliations entailed on us in our own eyes and in the eyes of others by what shows outwardly in our lives; or rather, let us conceal ourselves behind these outward appearances and enjoy God who is all ours. Let us profit by this apparent failure, by these requirements, by this care-taking and the necessity of constant nourishment, and of comfort;
of our ill success,
of the contempt of others,
of these fears,
uncertainties,
troubles, etc.
to find all our wealth and happiness in God, who, by these means gives Himself entirely to us as our only good. God wishes to be ours in a poor way, without all those accessories of sanctity which make others to be admired, and this is because God would have himself to be the sole food of our souls, the only object of our desires." - pg. 84.

There are times in life when we fail, fall, blow it. Sometimes these setback are large and public and we are humiliated and devastated. Caussade is saying that it is in these moments that something very special happens. In the midst of our desolation comes an opportunity to enjoy God!

Through the very means of failure, rejection by others, fear and insecurity - in the times we feel the lowest - it is in those moments God can enter in and can give us His very presence as a comfort and guide.

This is one of the most encouraging thoughts I have come across in a long long time. I hope and pray what Caussade describes becomes your experiential reality.