What is Success?
I have come to the conclusion that we have the concept of success all wrong. Which could be defined as the ability to reach a said goal. In the West we may understand the definition of success, but not the measure of it. Though we may have the concept right, we have the goal wrong. In America our goals are things like home ownership, retirement, or attaining happiness. But our time-line is far too short, and our perspective is far too close, to know what our goals really ought to be, or where true success really lies.
Since it is before God that we will be judged we need to measure ourselves by His standards. His value system is far different form ours because He is far different from us, “For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” 1 God is all good, all powerful, and all knowing. He measures us by our faith, which is seen in how closely we’ve followed his commands. Jesus told us the greatest commandment is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 2 These should be our two primary success gauges; how we respond to God, and how we treat people. If we are failing in these area’s we are failures no matter how much money we have or how high we’ve climbed our career ladder. So we ought to calibrate our gauges well.
Are we loving God with all our heart, or with lip-service? Are we loving him with all our soul, our favorite activities and pastimes focused on him? Are we loving him with all our mind; is our thought life focused on sports, sex, or God? Do we love him with all our strength? How much effort are we putting into establishing His kingdom.
Do we value our spouse and treating them as God commands? Are we raising up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Are we being faithful employees? Are we helping others practically, and not just saying “God bless you”? These are the standards by which our “success” will be judged, and we ignore them at our own peril.
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Joshua 1:8
1. Isaiah 55:9
2. Luke 10:27
