Shall I put it another way?

So I had a thought as I was driving home from work tonight. Still pondering this whole success thing; and it occurred to me:

Perhaps thinking about “success” is not really the best way to think about it after all. What I mean is, thinking about things in terms of personal success makes it all about me…and really, it’s not about me. I am crucified with Christ and my life is hidden in His. So, in reality, I’m thinking in wrong terms if I’m constantly focusing on whether or not “I” am a success.

So…how should I think of it. And is it wrong to strive for excellence, for success? I would say no – but again, it’s all about motive, all about the heart disposition. What is the driving force behind the desire to succeed?

My thoughts rested here for a moment: Perhaps I should think more in terms of faithfulness. Faithfulness borne out of a heart of gratitude. That moves the focus from me and places it where it should be – on the Lord. 

There are times when I am there – celebrating the Lord, living in gratitude to Him that reflects in every aspect of my life. But then there are times when I lose that focus and move away this focus. It becomes all about me and what I want and then…well, drama and mayhem ensue! But when I come back…oh the joy…

This is where the real joy begins: When my thoughts rest on the finished work of Christ. There is nothing I can do to add to that work. He has done it all! And I cannot ever be loved more or less by Him than I am right at this moment. My performance doesn’t determine that love. This is the true motivation, where the true desire to be faithful to my Lord is born. When I survey the wondrous cross…when I peer into the empty tomb…when I gaze up into the sky, knowing that someday He will return in the same way He left.

What greater motivation can there be?

More later…grace and peace…

 

Success…?

Here’s a question I was pondering with a friend this morning: How do you measure success? What are the earmarks of success?

Is it a high paying job with all the trimmings – the fancy car, big house and phat bank account?

Is it reaching a level of influence with important leaders in the business world or in government?

Is it celebrity status where everyone knows who you are and you are followed by papparizzi everywhere you turn?

My friend and I were speaking specifically in terms of success as it relates to ministry, so let me ask the question in these terms:

Does it mean you have a megachurch?

Does it mean you are on TV or radio everyday or every week?

Does it mean you fly around the country or the world, always first class, or better still in your own private jet?

Does it mean you have inside access to national leaders that enable you to give them advice?

Do these things equal success? I would answer yes, and no…or even maybe. How’s that for a straight answer? (Smile) But seriously, it all depends on what kind of success you are after, how you define success? Does success always mean huge numbers, or huge amounts of cash, or even huge influence on people deemed “important” by our culture and society? It could, but not necessarily.

And here I shall mount my soapbox…It seems to me that these things are secondary as it relates to success in ministry – or, if you’re not called to ministry as a vocation, the Christian life in general. Many times, these things can give the impression of success, but is not true success at all. The worldly trappings associated with success in our culture cannot be used to measure if a person is successful by the Lord’s standards. The Lord’s standards are much different. A huge congregation or following does not necessarily mean a person is “blessed of God” or is successful. It may just mean they are giving the people what their tickling ears want to hear…

Faithfulness…obedience…commitment to truth…these are measures of success that we should aspire to as Christians. Numbers and influence may or may not be the result of these things, but that should not be our ultimate goal. And if we don’t have the next megachurch or super successful mega ministry, that should not cause us to think we have somehow not reached the mark. Or, in the case of the Christian is not called to full time ministry – the number of people we “bring to a decision” does not determine whether we have been faithful or not. The question to ask: Was I faithful to my Lord in my interaction with that person?

Please hear me: I am not saying there is anything inherently wrong with big churches, big houses, big…well, anything. But the danger comes when we use these things to measure our level of success spiritually. Material prosperity should not be how spiritual success is measured. This was not the case in Paul’s life – he experienced plenty and want, and spent much of his ministry a wanted man, fleeing for his life, suffering persecution and misunderstanding. He considered all his worldly gains as rubbish for the sake of knowing Christ. He was arguably the most successful missionary in the history of the church, writing 75% of the New Testament and preaching the Word to countless people. And yet, he made his living as a tentmaker, not expecting anything from the people to whom he ministered. He did not consider his background as a Pharisee and expert in the law something to be lauded – his position in Christ and his obedience to the Lord were his aim.

As I think about this whole “success in ministry” thing, one passage comes to mind and just hangs there for a minute:

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.  I planted,  Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—  each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:5-15 ESV)

I’ll have to chew on that for a while…I’ll get off my soapbox now (smile)…

More later…grace and peace…

 

Daybreak…

This will be a short one, but hopefully I’ll be back sooner than later. My writing has been lacking of late, partly because much of what I have been thinking about just wasn’t something I would be willing to blog about. I don’t blog directly about my personal life; but, I do blog about the things God teaches me in the things that happen or that I experience. And He has been teaching me a lot lately!

I decided to read through the book of Proverbs during the month of October. One chapter per day. I’ve done this before, and each time I do it, it is more wonderful than the time before. And harder to a certain degree. Proverbs is wisdom literature; this book searches me, examines me, and leaves me with no excuses. And the most frequent area of my life that this happens with is my mouth.

I don’t know about you, but I can get myself in a lot of trouble with the words that fall out of my mouth or flow off the tips of my fingers as I type away. Much of the time, I have a lot to say; but sometimes the wise thing to do is to just keep it to myself. I mean, who asked me anyway? (smile) And this is what hit me over and over again as I read and studied through Proverbs this time around. The wise person it seems to me is a person of few words. But when they do speak, their words are full of insight and instruction. Their words are words of life and healing because they come from a heart that has been shaped by the Word and the love of God.

The wise one listens. They receive and lay up knowledge and accept reproof and correction; they do not have to share what they know all the time. They can disern when is the best time to speak, and when it is best to be silent.

Most importantly, the wise person not only listens to instruction but does it! They accept what God says and then adjust their life accordingly. They allow God to determine what is right (good) and what is wrong (evil) and do not seek to redefine these things to suit their own desires.

There is wisdom in silence. To put it bluntly, sometimes I just need to shut up…and in the shutting up, listen in, receive, ponder and move according to that which the Lord tells me is right and good.

May the Lord keep watch over my mouth.

Grace and peace…

 

The one…

So my dear friend Najah wrote a very provocative status on facebook about searching for “The one”. By the “one” she means the man or woman that is meant to be your spouse. I admit: I’ve been guilty of asking this same question, and asking the Lord to give me some sign to confirm if the person in front of me is “the one” He has sent for me. Tiffany made the following comment, and I felt it was too good not to share:

Well…we were chatting with a newly engaged couple, and our brother admitted that although he had been seeking the Lord in prayer for a wife, (even having made a commitment to be intentional about finding one,) …even after proposing he was struggling with the idea of if she is, “the one.’

So…another brother pointed him to the OT where the folks are always asking, “Is this the One? Are you the one true God??? …even as Christ hung on the cross they were still saying, if He is the One, he could show us another sign….really??? Really more signs??? So…this idea of asking for sign, upon sign, upon sign, is not a new thing…

Basically, the root of such a concept is found in never being satisfied with what God has placed before you, but always asking Him to prove Himself over and over again, be it thru signs and wonders or some other miraculous work. Humanly speaking, when you are asking the person you are dating to give more proof of whether they are, “the one,” (which may entail jumping through all kinds of hoops) reveals more about our depraved hearts than it does about the persons’ worthiness of our commitment.

I appreciated that this brother had made a vow to the Lord to pursue this beautiful sister until she said “no” and that regardless of moments of fear, he continued to persist on the basis of his vow first, and being swept away by her fearlessness and grace, second.

I’ll lay my cards on the table right now…I firmly believe the man should pursue, not the woman. He who finds a good wife, and so forth and so on. But as I consider the man who is pursuing, how do I decide if he is “the one”? Is there some “liver shiver” I should be waiting for? A “fleece moment”, as I like to call it, where God gives me a sign that it is he Who has sent this man to me?

 

Or should I be asking more practical questions like: Is this man a believer? Do we share the same goals, are we going in the same direction in life? Can I commit to this man and love him as he is without expectation of “changing him”; and will he do likewise with me? Do we agree about things like finances, family, how we spend our time and resources? That of course is not an exhaustive list, but these are things that come to mind as I sit here…

 

Doesn’t sound romantic? Well, if I’ve learned one thing from watching my parents who have been married for 44 years, romance will not build the foundation of a lasting marriage. And if I were to ask my parents “how did you know he or she was ‘the one’?”, they would recount all these things I mentioned above. No liver shivers; no fleeces laid out night after night. My father committed himself to pursue my mother and she accepted his overtures. And their love for one another has grown through the process of learning what it means to become one flesh.

 

Thanks Tiffany (and Najah) for these insightful words. You’ve given me a lot to think about.

 

More later…

 

Grace and peace…

 

 

When life gives you lemons…

…you rejoice.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trails of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. – James 1:2-3 NIV

That seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it? Going through a trial does not make me want to break out the good china and throw a dinner party. Trials are hard, painful. How can you rejoice in such circumstances?

Rejoice in the Lord always. I wil say it again: Rejoice! – Philippians 4:4 NIV

We rejoice in the Lord – in His love, His mercy, His love, His grace…His power. If we look at the circumstance, we will surely feel hopeless. But if we look to the Lord…we will feel that peace that surpasses all understanding, resting in the knowledge that a greater work is being done that we cannot see.

Does that mean we deny our pain? Absolutely not! I shed many tears when life starts pressing in on me; but even in through those tears, I can rejoice that the Lord is there, that the Lord sees, and the Lord knows the purpose for which He has allowed the trial. It’s not that we rejoice because we’re in pain; we rejoice because the Lord is still Lord in spite of it.

I don’t like trials…I certainly don’t like pain. But I will rejoice in the Lord even in the midst of my trial. Because those lemons that life gives me will indeed make some darn good lemonade when it’s all said and done…

More later…

Grace and peace…