Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Measuring Success--or Not

Scripture Verses that Caught my attention today: Psalm 41:11-12 By this I know that you are pleased with me;
because my enemy has not triumphed over me.
12 But you have upheld me because of my integrity,
and set me in your presence forever.

Observation: This may be what the Psalmist believed, but it’s not what I believe. It’s also not what Jesus and the Apostles believed.

Application:
These days just about everyone wants to be considered ‘successful.’ The question is, how does one measure ‘success?’ Or, to put it in Biblical/faith terms, how does one know if God is pleased with him or herself?

In Old Testament times the measure of such things was easy. If something bad happened to you, it was because God was not pleased with you. If something good happened to you, it was because God was pleased with you.

The New Testament, beginning with the story of Jesus himself, tells a different story. We know that God was well-pleased with Jesus, yet he suffered torture and death at the hands of those with whom God was not pleased. The Apostles suffered similar fates. Personal well-being could no longer be automatically equated with personal virtue.

The same holds true today. Many suffer. Many do not suffer. But one cannot just point to one group and say “well done” and point to the other group and say, in the terms often used by a friend of mine, “bad doggie, no biscuit!”

Sometimes I wonder why I am spared particular hardships. Other times I wonder why I’m going through them. I try not to get too confident in myself on the one hand and not too despairing of myself on the other. In each case there are lessons to be learned and morsels of faith to be proclaimed.

Prayer: Sometimes I wish you’d give me a little success-o-meter that I could carry with me to know how I’m doing. But that really wouldn’t work very well, would it? Every time I thought I was doing well my pride would likely swell up and force the meter back down again. Ugh! I guess I’ll just strive to be thankful for every experience you provide. But that doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy some of them more than others. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Readings today included: Judges 4-5, Psalm 39 and 41, 1 Corinthians 13)

No comments:

Post a Comment