- Success should come overnight
- If it doesn’t, you don’t deserve to be in the industry.
I know it’s ludicrous. Even typing the words makes me say, “duh! That’s ridiculous!!!!” inside my mind. But I have been held captive by these erroneous beliefs and want to call them out for what they are – lies that interfere with the work God wants to do through our businesses and in changing our lives.
You may not be quite as impressionable as I am. It might be easier for you to stand unmoved against the tide of instant success or be strong in the midst of your peers seemingly running laps around you. But I get discouraged. And I begin to doubt myself. So I look for the truth. Here’s what I find:
- Success is obedience to God in everything we do.
- It is God’s will – not other’s perception of our worthiness – that determines our place in the industry.
Again, I am a champion of a strong business plan, powerful branding, frugal spending, low overhead, and responsible risk taking. But I am a slave not to our cultures affinity with instant success but rather a slave to obedience to God. My worthiness, deservedness, and success is redefined in light of the objectives God has for my life.
Obedience, not instantaneous success, is the objective. And it is an objective that is connected with eternal success & blessings. I’ll take that over instant success any day.
The biggest challenge I find is defining "success". We live in a world that associates it with results, or money, or power, or whatever. But a Biblical definition of "success" would have to do much more with the accomplishment of God's will. Sometimes that coincides with our idea (e.g. Neh 1:11, and perhaps even Joshua 1:7). The key in each case is alignment of our wills with God's which leads us exactly where you went with this post - obedience, not results. God will take care of the rest. Sounds easy doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteGraham, I've been delighted to read your posts here (which I found through the High Calling Blogs "Work" feeds).
ReplyDeleteSara, I have been so blessed by your words as well, thanking God that Graham has you guest-posting. This one hits a sweet spot for me, as I have been pondering obedience for the past couple of years now. I appreciate that you can do wise business practices, yet without forgetting the higher objective of obedience.
You both bless me tremendously. Thank you.