How do you define success in life?
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I logged into WordPress today with a different blog post in mind. When I logged in, the first thing on my screen was this prompt and my plans for the day changed.
What is success? A quick search on google will tell you success is “the achievement of desired results, goals or favorable outcome”.
So then, with that definition of success in mind, what does it mean to be successful in life? I think depending on your family of origin, belief systems, or worldview will drastically impact what it means for you to have success in life.
I look back over my 30+ years of life (yes, that was painful to type) and see how what success in life to me has drastically changed over time. At one point, success would mean writing some awesome song, having it recorded, and then traveling the world as a musician. At another point in life, it would have meant playing 3rd base for the Texas Longhorns followed by professional softball… maybe even playing on the national team. At another point in the not too distant future, success meant writing a formula or equation that could find and account for every prime number ever. That was the dream. Somewhere along the lines, I decided I could settle for getting my masters and being an awesome math teacher which rate my professor seems to say I did.
I grew up in church. At 8 years old, I understood I was a sinner in need of a savior and that that savior was Jesus. He came to earth as a baby both fully God and fully man. He lived a sinless life, and ultimately died on the cross for my sin. He paid my debt for my sin so I wouldn’t have to. After 3 days in the grave, He came back to life defeating sin and death forever. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord, will be saved. At 12-13, I began understanding that following Jesus was more than that one time prayer. My senior year of high school I entered a season of drifting in my faith. Somewhere along the way, the Lord pulled me out of that drift. In college, the Lord said GO. A lot more has happened along the way, but that’s a long story made short.
Now in my 30s, success in this life is none of those things previously listed. If I have success in life, that means that I have decreased in my life so that He can increase. If I have success in life, that means I have taken Scripture and the commands of the Lord seriously. If I have success in life, that means I have used my life, however long or short it may be, to make His name known GREAT. If I am to have success in life, I need to look and smell like Jesus, more and more everyday.
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