Chapter 26 · Section Six, Stage 4: Progress
Failure Is Necessary
The question isn't whether you'll fail. It's whether you treat the failure as a verdict or as material.
The question this chapter asks
Which failure have you been treating as a verdict?
Practice
25 minutes
Verdict or material
Tell the account of a failure in three written paragraphs: what happened, what it cost, what it taught. Read the third paragraph out loud when you finish.
For the group
Name one failure you still carry as a verdict, something you decided about yourself because of it. Say the verdict out loud. Then ask the group: "Is that a verdict, or is it material?"
For the leader
This is one of the most powerful exercises in the curriculum. The group has permission to challenge the verdict. "That's material, not a verdict" can change someone's decade.
If your group prays together
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Optional.