"The Measure of Success"

We were reading from "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers this morning. For some reason, we read July 28th's reading, and it captured my attention: "And straightway He constrained His disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side...." Mark 6:45
"We are apt to imagine that Jesus Crist constrains us, and we obey Him, and He will lead us to great success.....We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal...the question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end...God is not working toward a particular finish; His end is the process-- that I see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea. It is the process, not the end which is glorifying to God...."
At first I was a bit confused..."God is not working toward a particular finish?" but then it cleared up in the last bit there at the end. This principle of God's success vs. our own is not understood by most people. They figure that if they follow God, He will supply them with success in their own goals, as if He was some sort of vending machine. The Lord does want us to be "successful" but, just as a child throws a fit when he cannot have that pretty lollipop in the store, (even though his mother knows he'd be all the worse off for it) we immediately assume that our plans, hopes, and dreams will be granted just because they are what we want. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." it says in Isaiah 55. At some point, the very thing we fear and struggle against, considering it "failure" will the be the very thing our Lord considers "success", and will desire us to do. I am warning you, the world will not take kindly to your following Christ. It will call you a fool. But as Christians, let us hope that we can avoid being so narrow-sighted as to think that the worth of our service to God is only measured by the world's standards, and only the fruit we can see, will be useful to God. I'd rather be a fool who loves Jesus than a brainiac who believes she is self-sufficient. Think of the many missionaries over time who have never seen a single Christian convert, though they have worked their whole lives toward that goal. Does that mean they have failed? Think of a man who works his whole adult life as a janitor at a school. In the world's eyes, he'd be considered a failure. And yet, God could have placed him there, in humble servitude, giving him an opportunity to minister to the students his whole life; a thing he could never have done in that way had he been the principle at the school. He may not understand the Kingdom work he is accomplishing. But so long as that janitor trusts that God is in control of His life, he can rest in the knowledge of His goodness. We have a standard to measure ourselves by that the world never has, and never will understad. So we cannot measure our "success" by their standards. We have enough people who are ready to do "grand and glorious" things, meaning the things that get noticed, and applauded. We need more people who understand God's economy, and who seek to follow Jesus Christ. Truly, if you think about it, going by the world's standards, Jesus was a failure. He never won the Pharisees over to God. He was crucified by the very people He was sent to save! And yet, in God's Kingdom, Jesus had just completed the ultimate, amazing, most beautiful rescue operation ever put into play. "Greater love hath no man than this: that he lay down his life for a friend."
When you are discouraged by your circumstances, and feel that absolutely everything is going "wrong", I challenge us all to step back, take a look around us, trust Jesus, and notice how perhaps, we are accomplishing something great after all. -Rachel