by What does success look like to you? How will you know you have arrived? Is there arriving or do we become perpetual chasers of things? Would the lack of these things make you feel like a failure? Would a diverging path spell doom?
Once in a while I get to dream of what success would mean to me. Like most people it includes good health, peace, purpose, happy family, money, assets, a stock of good relationships, achieved dreams, a bit of power and influence, and who says no to being famous (or notorious?). We define success as being great at something; excelling; being known for something. It is being immune to bread and butter problems or the cult of comparing bar soap prices ad nauseum at the supermarket. It is generational wealth that trickles to the fourth and fifth generation. It is a name that moves circles. It is work that matters, with national and possibly global impact. It is empires. Being known by journalists and bloggers. Gracing magazine covers. Trending on social media posts. Ideally, we understand that success is more than just the material. So we throw in good mental health, happy wife, well-adjusted kids and a clean conscience.
I want to be that successful. Social media successful. #20CountriesChallenge successful. #BreakfastInMykonos kind of successful. #MeetingPresidentRutoForBusiness successful. #Top40Under40. #AtMyBeachVilla. I want the mullah, the name, the award, the adult honor roll.
Is it any wonder manifesting and the ‘Name It Claim It’ gospel are thriving. They fan our lust for these idols — things we think will make us happy, things we’d trade our utmost for — loving husbands and benefactors, beautiful women, money, lands, cars, jobs, businesses, churches, education, titles, positions…
But what if God’s idea and plan for us looks starkly different from anything we could ever dream for ourselves? What if his idea of “well done good and faithful servant” never includes our adult honor roll list and #40CountriesChallenge?
Remember when God told Abraham to uproot his entire family from his prosperous home town, from his 14-bedroom villa in Ur, to take him to live in tents abroad?
God said, “Leave and go to a place I will show you.” [How often God’s instructions sound exactly like that and we go, “Like, really God? That’s all you are letting out? No address, no five-year strategic plan, no vision casting, just “Leave and go” or a “Follow me”?”]
Abraham lived in an affluent city in Mesopotamia and probably wasn’t doing bad for himself. He must have had goals and dreams to accomplish in Ur.
Suppose God’s plan never leads to my 10-year “Top40Under40 #BusinessIn12Countries” strategic plan? Suppose, like Abraham, we end up sojourners in a foreign land for years, still looking forward to a city of our own? Or like Jonah we find ourselves and our ego preaching to Ninevites whom we hate and who will deride us? Suppose the cross leads to the backwaters of small businesses, small jobs or no jobs at all and hovers there for decades – no accomplishments, no fame, no fortune?
The Bible Study Fellowship class notes on Genesis had these life-pausing questions: What things in life seem more precious or secure than following God? Where are you being led by insecurity, self-determination and fear? When God leads you beyond your comfort and understanding, will you trust him? What is your greatest fear today?
Faith is…
But faith is accepting God’s will even when we don’t know what it is. Faith is packing up life as we know it, when God says, “Go to a land I will show you”. Faith is Elijah embarking on a journey to Jezebel’s territory (she who was hunting him to kill him) because God has said, “I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” Faith is Mathew leaving his tax-collecting booth immediately when Christ says, “Come, follow me.” Contrast him with the man who asked to bury his father first, or the rich young fool who walked away dejected because his heart was wrapped into his riches.
Christ promises us that in following Him, whatever we think is a loss is actually gain. When Peter told Jesus, “We have left everything to follow you!” Christ replied that no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for his sake and for the gospel, will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come. Mark 10:28-30.
What is Christ calling you to forsake for the sake of His name? What yoke is Christ putting upon you that feels like ‘less-than’ your dream for yourself? God’s ‘mediocre’ plans will always be better than our best plans for ourselves. It is foolish pride to think we can do better with our lives than God can. God’s foolishness does not even approach our wisdom. If we are unwilling to define success as being at the centre of God’s will for us, wherever that might lead, we will live with fear of failure and underachieving. Because only God can define success for us. He created each of us for Himself and therefore only He can say, “good and faithful servant”. The only real failure is walking in our own wisdom or the wisdom of the world.
Here is an author-unknown quote I wrote down several years ago: “Self-effort plagues humanity. We wrongly think that trying harder, working longer or investing more takes us where we want to go. Our little towers crumble before the greatness of God.”
If each of us is a masterpiece in Christ Jesus, created for good works prepared for us before creation of the world, then there is no way we can fail in God. He has had the masterplan for our lives before black holes happened.
Would Abraham’s friends have thought his new calling would mean any “success”? In fact they must have told jokes about his poor business decision. Yet God had already ordered his steps as he has ordered ours.
We need to get to that place where we say God’s best is our best. It’s childlike trust in God’s heart and plans.
