Success

Follow One Course Until Success (Part 5 of the FOCUS series. Part one can be read here. Part two can be read here. Part three can be read here. Part four can be read here.)

What does success look like? It is not always as it appears.

A King of one army clearly gains victory over the forces of another side – but has not been successful. Meanwhile a messenger sent to warn a city of impending doom lives to see the city fall to that doom – but is considered successful.

How does that work?

One leader has a people in desperate need of water and is able to provide it for them – but he is not considered to be successful in this act. Another leader has a people who are in need of life and liberty and this leader dies rejected and despised – and is considered to be successful in this act.

How does that work?

Jesus states that many will come to Him saying that they have said and done many great things in His name. That sounds like success.

Many people have achieved much in their profession and gain popularity for their achievements elsewhere. That sounds like success. Some people have nailed down a decent job, good house and to all appearances a family that is safe and secure. That sounds like success.

Meanwhile there are some who are living in abject poverty. There are people who have lost everything as far as the watching world is concerned. There are people incarcerated for both just and unjust reasons. There are people who suffer with a variety of serious emotional, physical and mental ailments.

Defining success can be as large a project as your imagination wants. Yet there can be a much more simple explanation: doing what God calls you to do. It doesn’t have to be sensational, it doesn’t have to be eye-catching, indeed nobody has to be made aware of it and you don’t have to go hunting for the approval and affirmation of others.

What it is all about, though, is knowing what to do, getting the understanding of how to do it and doing it. This is how some locked up in prison for serious crimes can still be considered a success because of how their lives are turned around and they learn to follow Jesus in repentance, forgiveness, embracing mercy and living His life to extend love to others even in challenging circumstances.

This is also how others with the seemingly good life receiving plaudits and praise from others can completely miss the mark because they are not committed to doing what’s right in God’s sight. They choose not to follow the one course Jesus sets until its completion. They deviate or sometimes choose to completely ignore the course laid out, impatient for the process to please God and preferring to please themselves or others.

Success is something that can be experienced every day. Just by following the course set by what’s been instructed. Keeping on loving others. Maintaining the love for God. Persisting in what the last thing you were told to do. Diligently staying the course on the teaching and fellowship that makes the difference. Persevering despite the setbacks, realising that it’s not in your own strength that you can succeed – there is strength, knowledge, wisdom and understanding available to help.

The path to success is not easy, but through it all progress is made as long as we FOCUS.

(Photo by Tamas Tuzes-Katai on Unsplash)

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden