What is success for you? Is it numbers (counting heads or counting dollars)? Is it a great reputation? Or respect in your ministry or business niche?
None of these are bad (unless they become an idol) but what happens when we reach this type of success? Game over? What drives us further? What really matters? We’ve all seen “successful” people who are miserable.
I believe the ultimate definition of success for those of us who claim to follow Christ is obedience. Success = obedience. Nothing more. Nothing less.
So what if our ministry is small. So what if our ministry is big. God’s paradoxical view of “smallness” and “bigness” is much different than ours. Remember the parable of the mustard seed? Or the widow’s giving? God wants to keep us on our toes as we follow him thru the adventure He has planned for us.
This year my daughter decided to “give” instead of “get” at her birthday party. She wanted to raise her weight (46 pounds) in canned goods for a local food ministry. Our local Chic-Filet heard about it and decided to start their own little food drive. On the day of her birthday party her little girlfriends brought cans and the Chic-fil-A cans were delivered in person by a very large cow.
My daughter had the best party ever, learned a great lesson in giving, made her parents very proud, and collected 156 pounds of food for needy families in our area! A 7 year old girl took a small step of obedience and it had a huge impact. Now that’s success!
The greatest thing about true success is that it doesn’t depend on outside factors. You can’t control how many show up for your ministry or how many products you sell…but you CAN control how obedient you are to what God has called you to do!
Speaking of success and obedience, there’s a brand new Timbuktoons initiative called “TimbukTOONS IN ACTION!” coming at you in 2009 and next month I’ll share the details!
Farrah
February 24th, 2009
I’ll see your obedience and raise you humility and sincerity. If either are missing a person could be headed for hypocrisy no? Just a thought I would throw out there.
Success= being sincere and humble while carrying out obedience
Timbuktoonblog » Blog Archive » Defining Success, Part 2: Giving and Serving
May 5th, 2009
[...] Defining Success Part 1, I talked about real success. Success = obedience. I also mentioned a new initiative we’re [...]