What is failure and what is success? We all have our own opinions about what it is to be successful and what failure is. Many are probably pretty similar, and some would disagree completely with others on what success and failure is. For example, is it success or failure to go bankrupt? Were you successful in creating a business for one, two, or three years only to finally fail financially? Is the financial support of oneself in building a business the measure of success or is it the determination and perseverance through the struggles of creating that business and having it succeed for a few years before closing its doors. How do we define success and failure? Since this is a Christian based blog, how does a Christian define success and failure? How do you think God and Jesus define success and failure? I have been thinking a lot about this term over the last year. Especially since I have felt that God wanted me to step out in faith and go part-time at my job so I can work full-time as a writer. How is that being successful? Losing money, barely making it financially? Would God ever ask us to fail? It often seems like God sets his own followers up for failure, especially if we look at success with the western mindset of success. Generally, (at least for unbelievers – and many believers) success is determined by financial stability and/or assets. How many cars we have, how many houses, how much we can spend monthly, how expensive our vacations are, et.
One thing I have learned about God and success is that His idea is often not our idea. Take me for example. If God has called me to write full time, then I WILL succeed. What will that success look like? Sometimes I feel like God’s idea of success looks more like failure – at least how we finite creatures generally view success. I am constantly in a struggle of defining my own success as a writer based on the worldly view vs. a Biblical view of success. I often feel like I am going to be a failure in my writing because I don’t imagine myself becoming the next Stephen King, or J. K. Rowling, or Dean Koontz. I realize that I will probably never be able to support myself fully on ONLY writing. I will most likely, like most authors, need a “day job” to make ends meet. This is my problem. I tend to think of success as being able to buy that big house with a lot of big rooms and a massive yard. Go to fancy $500 plate events and live the lavish lifestyle. Now this would be great, and no one would deny that they would like to be financially stable, but I think that God’s view of success is completely different for me. I have often said I don’t expect to make much money from my writing, but I hope to be able to support myself in writing. What does the success look like for me then? How does God see my success?
Here is what I think about God’s view of success. God is more concerned with growing us as believers than our complete wellbeing. If it were the case that he were primarily concerned with our wellbeing, then we would have little physical, emotional, and spiritual warfare. We wouldn’t have the majority of the New Testament and much of the Old. Testament would be missing. We would be living blissful lives. We grow by facing adversity and trials.
So, what I view as success in my current circumstances is not even selling a lot of books but living by faith for God to provide what I can’t until He decides to give me more favor in my writing. This may happen, or it may not happen – favor, I mean, not God providing. He will provide, I know that. I think my success may look more like failure for a while….even a long while…but I’m okay with that. I just have to remember not to govern success by the worldly standards, but what I know of God’s standards.
So, if you still doubt the idea that God’s success often looks like failure, take a look at Jesus on the cross. This was the confusing factor of Jesus’s death and resurrection for His followers. Everybody thought he was coming to bring His kingdom (which he did, just not the way anyone thought). You see the King dying on a cross sure looked like failure. The biggest failure of all time…..but…as we all know…that failure turned out to be the all-time greatest of successes. It seems like when something looks to be a bigger failure, it often is a more significant success or at least opens up the door to even greater success. I could go into example after example from scripture and history, but I think I have made my point.
What is your idea of success? Is it more like the world's ideas or is it more like God’s. Just one more example I heard years ago that stuck with me. I don’t even remember who it was, but I remember the story. A speaker once said (at some church event) that he was an all-star college athlete who was offered an NBA position, but God had also called him to the mission field (I think it was college, but it may have been high school, and he was offered a college sports scholarship). He had explained that when he went back to visit his high school, his former coach expressed great disappointment in his life choice to be a missionary. The coach had said that he could have been such a great success. Now the speaker explained that he was a success, only a success from a different perspective. His success didn’t require fame or money but knowing that he had followed God’s plan for him.
A long post, but I think through all of my rambling you see my point. Judge success by your own standards and not by other people’s standards. Even in the Christian worldview, success can be different for different people.