I confided in my friend yesterday over cups of coffee under the awning of a small, local coffee shop that I felt like I was not a successful blog writer. I’m not. Looking at the numbers, I’m far from successful. “I don’t feel I write well,” I told her before she gave me that look that friends give me when I’m in a self-deprecating mood which is a little too often.
“You write beautifully! You just don’t market yourself.” It’s true. I’m really bad at self marketing. I feel like I’m just another voice in this large crowd of oversaturated Christian women bloggers. I don’t know what to write so I don’t. And when I do? I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to market myself without seeming fake. I don’t want to be fake.
But another thing that brought to mind is how we define “success.” Our culture relies a lot on numbers for success, but is that really what success means in following Jesus? Large numbers of followers? Large numbers of likes and shares? Does success even mean anything like that?
My life is literally surrounded by numbers, thanks to type one diabetes. My blood sugar, insulin units needed to eat, insulin units left in my pump, how many carbs does that order from Chick-fil-a have…. It’s all numbers. And it’s easy to get overwhelmed by that information. I’m constantly reminding myself that numbers are just information and do not signify my worth or success in blogging or diabetes management. Numbers cannot control me, or man, I would be in trouble today!
What does success look like? John 16 is a part of Jesus’s farewell discourse. He knows He’s leaving and that it’s going to be hard for the disciples, but He sits there and says essentially, “look. Trouble is going to happen, but don’t let that worry you, because trouble has nothing on me. I’ve already beat it.” In fact, Jesus seems to contraindicate worldly success when He says, “What good is a man to profit the world and forfeit his soul?” (Mk 8:36). In His own life, His large following slowly disappeared and got smaller until His death. Success, to God, isn’t about how the world views success. What marks success in a believer?
Success means obedience – Jesus says, “if you love me, you will obey my commands.” (John 14:15)
Success means love – Jesus says this while on earth. The sum of the Law and the Prophets is wrapped up in loving God and loving people. In fact, John 15:12 says this love is a mark of Jesus’s disciples.
Success means making disciples – There’s this idea, especially in Western Christianity that the Great Commission commands us to go, but that’s not the case. The Greek word translated is actually in a tense we don’t have in English and is better translated, “as you’re going.” The command is to make disciples, to essentially, as St Francis of Assisi said, “preach the gospel at all times and if necessary use words.”
Success means setting your mind on the eternal – If Revelation is to be believed, as it should be, Jesus will return us to a state like that of the Garden of Eden, but with Sin and Death permanently defeated and we will live in this New Earth. Success means not worrying about our possessions that can be destroyed, but about working in our relationships with Jesus and humanity and things that cannot be destroyed. Success means looking to the Glory of God, and not ourselves.
Success means faithfulness – One of my favorite things to learn about and one of the things I want to keep learning about is this idea that grace as a gift is more than a blanket over our sins that requires little of us. Grace, in the New Testament period, was the payment of a great debt which required action from the recipient (client) toward the giver (patron). Grace is the gift and faith is our action. Jesus, on the cross, paid our debt to Sin. When we accept this grace gift from Him, He requires our obedience and faithfulness. In this case, our faith isn’t in effort to repay Him for His payment of our debt, but to show our eternal gratitude for that lavish gift. We serve because our gratitude demands our faith to Him.
While it’s so easy for me to see success in clicks, in likes and shares, in “congratulations!” and in money, it’s not truly success. Reframing my idea of success will be a lifelong journey, and I just know I forgot some marker of success here. Thanks be to Him that I don’t have to remember everything!
Here’s a challenge to you. How do you define success? What needs to change in your idea of success to be more Kingdom minded?
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