Every teacher has to give a speech in chapel every once in awhile. My first speech is October 28. I wrote my speech really early so I could get it translated into Japanese. I want to give my speech entirely in Japanese so the students understand me. This is one of my only opportunities to speak Japanese to them, and to speak about the Christian faith.

Romans 5:6-8 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

I am a failure. Every day I fail in many ways. I fail by not clearly explaining an idea to my students. I fail by not being able to communicate with my co-workers and friends in Japanese. I fail forgetting God during my day. I fail by not achieving my personal expectations. Today I will tell you about my failures in the hope that you will see how, even though I fail every day, God gives me strength, grace, and love to live my life.

Before I came to Japan I thought that, in 2 years time, I could be fluent in Japanese. In America I studied hiragana and katakana. I learned simple words and phrases. However, that was not enough to prepare me to speak Japanese to store clerks, people at church, students, or other teachers. I have become like a child here in Japan—I have to learn how to read, write, and express myself like I did when I was an infant in America. Some days I feel confident in my Japanese abilities. Other days I am frustrated because I cannot communicate even simple ideas. At those times I feel foolish. What do the Japanese think of me? Do they think I am stupid? Or rude? I know now that, even in two years, I will not be fluent in Japanese. My expectations are too high. I feel like a failure because I cannot meet my own expectations for communicating in Japanese.

I fail in other ways as well. I graduated from college with a degree in music. While I was in college I studied many beautiful pieces of music. I learned to write music, because I wanted to learn to write pieces as beautiful as those of the composers I loved. I would sit at the piano for hours to try to write a few measures of music that sounded as beautiful as Bach, Beethoven, and Debussy, but I could never succeed to my satisfaction. To my ears, my music sounded fake, like a photocopy of a famous painting.

I also fail with God. When I was your age, I thought I understood who God was. I knew a lot about the Bible and I went to church and to Bible studies. But I didn’t realize until about a year ago that I did not understand God at all. At that point I felt I had failed, so I gave up on God. I lost all my faith in Him. I decided I didn’t care about Christianity any more because I couldn’t understand it. But recently I realized that faith in God is not possible without questions. No human can fully understand God. The Bible tells us this in Romans 11:33: []. So we all fail at understanding God, and God understands this. God also understands that we fail to honor and obey him. We cannot meet God’s expectations of righteousness. Romans 3:23 says[] . It doesn’t matter how hard we try—we will not reach perfect obedience and righteousness in God’s eyes. But God knows this. Romans 5:6-8. If we were perfectly righteous, if we were not failures, then Jesus would not have had to die. We would not need his sacrifice. But, because we are sinners, we desperately need His forgiveness, which, because of His love, He freely gives.

I am a failure. I cannot understand or obey God. But God knows this, and because He loves me and has forgiven me, I don’t need to worry.

Labels: Chapel Speeches