Many of you responded to last week's blog "Epic Fail." Like the pastor who held the conference by the same name a lot of people resonate with failing as being a learning experience that draws us closer to God. That being said, I never want to celebrate failure. Failure is often just inability to rightly define success.
What is success? May I offer my working definition? "Success is discovering and doing God's unique purpose for my life and helping others do the same." I want to point a few distinctions of my view and other commonly held definitions of success.
First, succes is not a situation in our life that we hope to attain. It is not about money or fame. It is not always dangling somewhere out in front of us. It can be a constant reality. Success is in the seeking as well as in the doing.
Second, success is not based upon being gifted, your personality or situation. In the course of discovering God's unique purpose for your life you may go through many different situations, both good and bad. That's ok, because success is not a place but a process. So succcess is not how many homes you sell, awards you win, or the balance in your bank account. It's not even the number of people who attend your church. It is about learning and doing what God has uniquely prepared you to be.
Third, a truly successful person brings other with them. They help others find their unique role in the world. They encourage, involve and pray for others to be successful. They celebrate the fact that God has created us not only to work with Him, but to work with each other.
These truths are are born out of my own experience. For several years other pastors often refer to my ministry and the church I serve as successful. I agree, but not for the reasons they cite. If it were based upon pure numbers, where did we begin to be successful? Was it at 100. Maybe a church becomes successful at 500. Do you see the error of this way of thinking. Dallas Bay became successful when about two dozen people answered the prompting of God's Spirit to begin a mission at a local grade school. Whatever came of that church would not dictate whether those people were successful or not. They were successful because they dared follow God's voice regardless where He led them.
I encourage you to consider adopting my definition of success for your own life. Is there only one successful salesman in your company. Certainly not! Is there just one successful parent in your neighborhood? I would guess there are several. Are you less a success than your friend just because he has a larger car, or home or bank account? No, no, no... neither was Paul any more successful when he finished than when he began. Because he understood life to be a journey where we are to look to Him for strength, Paul knew he he could never use the world's definition of succes as his own.
Philippians 4:11-13 (NKJV)
11 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:
12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
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