“I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.” (Proverb 8:17)

Each of us can point to times or moments when we felt a particularly close intimacy with Our Creator, with our Heavenly Father whom Jesus came to reveal. The same can be said for the grief we have each felt when we failed our Father so miserably. Given the chance, though, the Holy Spirit will remind us that it was for our failures that Jesus died, that it was to a man who had failed him that Jesus entrusted his precious lambs, and that it was to a man who had tortured and murdered his followers that the Ascended Christ gave the mission of sharing his gospel to the Gentiles.

Since Peter and Paul, countless men and women have endured the bitter experience of failure, you and I among them. We pass through the valley of shame and regret, only to face again and again life's crosswinds on our journey. But why? Theologians and scholars offer numerous explanations, but this I know...