In ministry you will fail. Not because you missed your calling… but because you found your calling. I love these thoughts from Wayne Cordeiro in his book Sifted: Pursuing Growth through Trials, Challenges, and Disappointments:

The truth is that you will fail. You simply won’t have what it takes when you begin. You may have the calling, the zeal, the energy, and the support. You might have the location, the invitation, and even the money. But when you begin you won’t have what it takes to finish. “What is that?” you might ask. What’s missing is that inner core, the tensile strength of faith that is revealed only under strain. It is a quality of character that is tested not in port but in the open seas. And it is this testing that ratifies your calling, not your attendance at a church planters’ boot camp or the board’s seal of approval. Neither your degree nor the letters of commendation you receive speak to this need. It is something that can be acquired only through failure, learning your limits and learning to trust not in yourself but in the God who has called you.

With calling comes sifting: Luke 22:31-32 and 2 Corinthians 1:9.