For several days the news media has blasted the President and the Federal Emergency Management Administration for their failure in the relief efforts that followed Hurricane Katrina. What exactly does ‘success’ look like when an evacuation of an entire city is the goal? If 10,000 people died, in a city with a population of 1.5 million, is that a ‘failure’ or is that a ‘success’ since it means that more than 99% of the population survived a catastrophic natural disaster – well, actually two disasters; first, the hurricane, then the floods that followed? The answer depends on who you are. If you’re a FEMA manager who has worked 18-20 hours a day on bringing relief to a dying city, you will point to those who survived as proof that your efforts succeeded. If your son or daughter perished in flood waters for lack of rescue, you will conclude that the efforts failed. Ultimately, only God and the person who did his job know if what he did was accomplished to the best of his ability!
Every one of us is judged a success or failure by others, aren’t we? We recoil from the sting of criticism and embrace the soothing of affirming words, but does either really make us a success or a failure? We must always remember that a large part of the response of another person to us personally and to what we do is biased by his own needs and desires. So, if we base our sense of success and/or our sense of personal worth solely on the evaluations of other people, we set ourselves up to be pulled this way and that in desperate attempts to gain approval. No one will satisfy all the people all of the time. Trying to win the praise of all people is a prescription for frustration and fatigue!
True success is knowing that we did the best we could do given our opportunities and the resources available to us. As Believers we need to be challenged and comforted by the promise of God’s judgment of our lives. When He asks us to give account, it won’t be statistics that prove if our lives were worthy. It will be faithfulness! We won’t be able to polish the report to reflect our efforts in their best light. He will see our lives as a complete picture for He knows the gifts He invested in us, the people He brought to serve with us, the opportunities He presented to us. He will know the difficulties we wrestled to overcome, the challenges we worked to overcome, and the times when we decided to slack off and let ourselves be content with ‘good enough.’ He will know when we served because we loved and when we served because we wanted applause! I want to live in a way that gains the sweetest words I’ll ever hear – “Well done, good and faithful servant!” How about you, friend?
Samuel, the prophet, went in search of a king for Israel. He met Eliab, the eldest son of Jesse, who had learned to carry himself with authority and was impressive. He thought, “Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t make decisions the way you do! People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at a person’s thoughts and intentions.” (1 Samuel 16:6-7, NLT)
If we keep our accountability to God in mind, we will live freely and much more joyously. Rather than looking at our awards and accomplishments for significance, we will let His Presence and the sense of His approval satisfy our need. Knowing that we are loved by the Lord Jesus and that we have done what He asked of us will be success enough.
When Jesus first commissioned His followers to go out and do the work of the Kingdom, they met with earthly success. They came back to report their accomplishments to Him. His response is eye-opening! Meditate on His words. Take this thought with you through the day.
· "See what I’ve given you? Safe passage as you walk on snakes and scorpions, and protection from every assault of the Enemy. No one can put a hand on you. All the same, the great triumph is not in your authority over evil, but in God’s authority over you and presence with you. Not what you do for God but what God does for you—that’s the agenda for rejoicing.”(Luke 10:19-20, The Message)
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If the struggle you're facing is slowly replacing
Your hope with despair;
Or the process is long and you're losing your song in the night.
You can be sure that the Lord has His hand on you,
Safe and secure; He will never abandon you.
You are His treasure and He finds His pleasure in you.
He who began a good work in you.
He who began a good work in you, will be faithful to complete it.
He'll be faithful to complete it,
He who started the work will be faithful to complete it in you.
© 1987 Jonathan Mark Music ARR UBP of Gaither Copyright Management / Birdwing Music (a div. of EMI Christian Music Publishing) CCLI License No. 810055
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