Defining Success: God's Way

Success means many things to many people. I'm sure hundreds of books sit on a plethora of shelves all housing scores of information all defining what it means to be successful. I will not take the time to address the role of gender and give my definition of success for the man and for the woman, although it has a lot to do with family, I will rather elaborate on success in general. 

I'll start with a quote from a book I'm reading called "The Circle Maker", and it reads as follows:

"You need to circle the goals God wants you to go after, the promises God wants you to claim, and the dreams God wants you to pursue."

In other words as the book also suggests, success is not circumstantial because it is less about "doing" God's will and more about "being" God's will.  

People get high and mighty over what they want to achieve in life. Your job ultimately determines your success, or maybe your money. Whatever it is, most of the time there's a blank to fill in and an overwhelming percent of the time it is something tangible. Let me give you an alternative: 

Try filling in the blank of what defines success with something intangible.

Most of my life and even now I'm in a battle, as are most of you out there, and if you're not you may be in denial, about what path I want to go on in life and if that direction is right for me. There's a problem with that. I'm defining success in terms of something tangible. Will my job be right? That's tangible. Will my place of location be right? That's tangible. Will I choose the right house? That's tangible. Why can't we define success in a different way?

Here comes the part where I tell you what I believe and following this I'll give you a challenge. I believe success is defined by your character and respect in life. Both of my grandfathers hold weight as respectable men in business and both of my grandmothers as amazing supporting women in the home. Are either of those roles something outstanding and highly achievable positions by people in America? Maybe so, but most likely not. Success for them was defined by their character! The respect held for them by everyone around them, family or not, determined their success. They only cared about being famous in their own homes, and to them that was their greatest fortune ( that last line paraphrased from The Circle Maker). 

Let your success be defined by how you raise your children, how you treat others, how you are respected, the reflection of your character and MOST importantly for us believers, how you are BEING God's will and not just doing it. Do not be held captive to the motions of just church alone, or life in general, but rather be the will of God in your life. Show others Jesus wherever you're at. Show others Jesus in whatever job you're meant to be in, carrying out that specific potential God placed on your life. 

Now for the challenge. After reading this and reflecting on your own, grab a piece of paper and pen, or your Notes app, and write this question:

How do I define success?

Answer that honestly and compare that to God's definition which is the way you show the world Him. Compare your own personal acts of justice and the respect your family, peers and everyone who comes in contact with you in whatever area of life you're in, have on you. See how that compares and change anything tangible to things meaningful and also Godly. 

Having A Wholly Committed Heart

"It remains to be seen what God will do with a man who gives himself up wholly to Him." - Henry Varley

     We keep our hearts to ourselves don't we? My heart is something I hold dear and because of my past I want to keep it very private, and maybe even put up a wall to others, and sometimes even Christ. I sometimes like to keep my own heart locked up in a cage only accessible to me. But as Christians I don't think we are meant to keep our hearts all locked up only accessible by us. 

     We are built for community. We were made for each other. When we go through life and encounter certain situations, we aren't meant to go through them alone. We are meant to find those we trust, fellow Christians, those true friends that add the light of Christ to our lives and share our hearts with them. We make them our accountability partner if we have to. I know about being burned. Sharing your hearts with those that betray them isn't fun. But we aren't meant for that. We aren't meant to keep everything in our lives caged up only accessible by our own selves. Keeping our hearts caged up keeps us from being completely whole with God because it makes us less willing to give up our own will and take on His. That leads me to my next point. 

     As Christians, God owns our hearts. It is Him who has come and made a home in you, by sending His Spirit. So the last thing God wants is for you to keep your heart, now housing His Spirit, locked up only to yourself and to hide your feelings and needs from God. Just like your heart is built for communion and fellowship with others, those accountability buddies that you highly respect and trust, God is the holder of your heart so holding things back from Him in your own mind is naive for your own self, and for the fact that He knows your needs already. Hiding things from God only hurts you because He knows all things even when you're trying to be private and sneaky. 

Share your heart with your friends, those true Christians you look up to or those you use as accountability buddies. This will begin to opening up your heart to be fully committed to The Lord because holding it all in only restricts your spiritual growth and keeps it all in your hands, which is a place it isn't meant to be. 

2 Chronicles 16:9 

"The eyes of The Lord range throughout the  earth to sterf then those whose hearts are fully committed to him."

Not Safe Friday

Pic Credit: http://unfetteredpotential.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Aslan-Not-Safe-But-Good.jpg

     What does today mean? Some take it for granted. Some use it as a holiday. Some though, use it as a pinnacle part of their faith story. A God-man sent to Earth to fulfill prophecies, save the sinner, and to die on this day for all of us. I want to be clear. This day is named Good Friday for a reason and not Safe Friday for many more reasons. Here are a few but I could continue.



Following Jesus isn't safe, but it is good.

"Counting all sufferings as joy", as Paul said, isn't safe but it is good.

Leading others to Christ isn't safe, but it is good.

Fulfilling the Great Commission isn't safe, but it is good. 

     As it was said by Mr. Beaver referring to Aslan the lion in C.S. Lewis's acclaimed novel, God is not safe, but He is good. We live our lives bound by this safety net because it's not one that has us trapped, but instead we choose to stay bound in it ourselves. We want to make sure our lifestyles exhibit the factor of safety over goodness. Sometimes safety means disregarding what is good morally. You may make a decision for your own comfort that may not glorify God, like choosing not to witness to that struggling coworker in hopes to make sure you stay in your safety of your own comfort zone.

     Today in history did not represent safety. This day surely wasn't safe for Christ and did not ensure a life of safety for the rest of the world who would choose to follow Him. This life of Christ reflected what was morally good but not comfortable for humans. He knew that though. He knew that once this was done there would be those that choose the comfort and safety of the world over the solid goodness of Christ. Operating under the love of Christ, and spreading that, institutes a life of moral goodness. You will struggle, you will fall short, you will lose many earthly battles and if you are willing to spread the Word to all nations, or just all of your neighborhood, then your safety could be in jeopardy while still your morality will reflect God's goodness. 

     I'm not suggesting us to go out there and use bad judgement in regards to our own physical safety, but we want to use a type of adventurous judgement that will be rewarded on our final day of Judgement. 

     We want to choose the good life over the safe life.

     An example I've adopted recently is the idea of adventures. Adventures thrill me and I am stoked to fill my life with them. An adventure always represents a risk, partly one of our own safety. Being comfortable is not a common factor on an adventure, and sometimes our safety isn't either. That being said, adventures can bring about some of the best life lessons, some of the closest encounters with God, and some of the best stories to share with others. Do not live your life in a bubble safety net being afraid to spread the Word in hopes that your own safety of your ego be upheld. Humble yourself and bring your soul to a point where you are perfectly fine with living a life of goodness for Christ no matter what that may cost you. Because remember on this Good Friday, it cost Him everything to bring about a life of goodness in Him for us. 

The God-Saving Us Story.

     Guys, check this out. There came a time when God was in heaven and looking down on His creation. He saw the line of human thought and behavior now tainted by  a "broken beyond repair" sort of sin. There was no more animosity, no more passion, and while chaos and turmoil ran wild you know what He decided to do? When man decided to substitute himself for God, which is a sum definition of sin, God substituted himself for man. Let that sink in. To save humanity, He made Himself the perfect by-product of the alter ego of humanity at the time which was a perfect man. A living, breathing, full functioning "hey look at what I made you to be" now here on earth. A man-God radiating love, passion and a heart boundless and free. God came to reset the timeline, to flip the switch from humanity needing saving producing a savior (boom here's God-man) to now God-man has arisen and isn't here and instead we are now left with a lesson to be learned and followed. A conclusion and end-story made from a God who substituted Himself for man while we were substituting ourselves for Him. So what do we do with this unfathomable act of love and kindness? We put ourselves higher on pedestals. We strive to become the next God-man. We build idols (pop culture, money, success, fame, what have you) and on a daily basis substitute ourselves for God. So since we know rationally that's imaginary, we can't be God, we now have a problem. There will be no more God-man to walk around and save our sinful nation. It is up to plain man. It is up to the sinful humans to lead OTHER sinful humans to the now arisen God-man. Am I the only one blown away by this? But is this goal unreachable? No, but true answer: Daily Double. God knows us (our doubts, conditional love, and our unwilling nature to lead people to Him) AND His love beats out ours. His love is present for us continually, and no we don't understand it because our love is conditional, having to fit certain standards before we love, but His isn't. So we have a task, to tap into this unconditional love and lead others by example to knowing the perfect God-man Jesus, a Great Commission as He calls it, and it's a goal. It's this. To have men lead other men away from God-substitution and into God-permanence. That just means to stop putting God where you want Him when you want Him and sinning the rest of the time by substituting yourself as God, and to make Him where He wants Him all the time He wants Him there permanently. Got that? Thus making Him no longer needed for substitution when you are practicing God-permanence. If we do that, people can change people when they are in a state of God-permanence. You can lead people to Christ when you are not trying to BE Christ but to behave like Him. Love like Him. Teach like Him. Lead like Him. That is what makes God's heart smile and puts true Christians back into the soul-saving, discipleship making business. So here's the scene. There's a God in heaven. A God-man named Jesus in heaven. And a Holy Spirit here in us. That is what leads us to practice this God permanence and lead others to Christ through this Spirit of love and kindness inside of us. Through that we can save humanity again. Because man saving man is pointless and impossible without some sort of divine aid. That Spirit is in us, or available to us if you are not already aware of it, and we have a goal now. One set by the God-man. So let's do it. How will you practice God-permanence tomorrow?