The Measure of Success

I started reading the book of Joshua this morning.  Chapter 1 verse 8 says, "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success."

I spent a couple of hours working in the yard this morning and was thinking about what I wanted to write about this verse.  I came in and saw the headline that O.J. Simpson had passed away.  Success, O.J. and my brother, Rod, will always be tied together in my mind.

On June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were brutally murdered. Nicole's former husband, O.J. Simpson, was charged with the murders. On Friday, June 17th, instead of turning himself in, O.J. became the object of a low-speed pursuit in a white Ford Bronco SUV.

The next day, Rod and I talked about this on the phone. It seemed many were in shock that someone "so great" could commit such a horrible crime. Rod told me, "Kathy, that's why you have to be careful who you make your heroes. You can't choose athletes as heroes. They might do great things on the field, but that doesn't make them great people. True heroes are people of God."

That was the last conversation we had, as Rod passed away the following Wednesday. Those words resonate in me still. We have to be so careful whom we choose to admire.  I have thought about those words so many times through the years.

 

There is probably no greater contrast to OJ, the famous football player, than Rod. I doubt that Rod ever weighed more than 125 pounds, his body was weak, with a pronounced limp from a fall in his childhood. But the man he was inside, that man stood tall and strong. He didn't take the things of God lightly. He cared about people. He ministered in song. And from the many comments I have received on posts about him, he ministered to people just by being himself.

 

David Guzik's Enduring Word Commentary says about Joshua 1:8, "God’s Word so lived is a guarantee of Christian success. Not that it promises a life without problems, but it does insure a life able to deal with anything, because it takes full advantage of God’s presence and promises.  And Christian success is not measured by the same standards as the world’s success. Even if the world accounts us as sheep for the slaughter, we are actually more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:36-37)."

 

It's not our bank accounts, careers or celebrity status that makes us successful.  Getting God's Word in our minds, in our hearts and in our actions will lead the way to an overcoming life with good success.

Success, Failure, or Feedback?

Les taught a great lesson in Sunday school this past Sunday.  I won't try to reteach it here, but there is one concept I wanted to blog about.  It's the concept of feedback. 

Whenever we attempt something ~ from inviting someone to church, to losing weight, to training for a marathon, or starting a business ~ we have the opportunity for feedback.  If we don't get the outcome we wanted or expected, we will often call it a failure, when we can just as easily turn it into feedback.

What is feedback?  I have heard this often in Weight Watchers meetings.  The number on the scale is feedback.  You were down 3 pounds this week?  Success!  Maybe.  It could be you were sick and didn't feel like eating, or you cut your intake drastically.  The following week, back up a pound?  An utter, total failure!  At least that's what we tell ourselves.  Not true!  It's an opportunity to review how we've eaten.  Feedback.

When we invite someone to church and they say no, that doesn't make us a failure.  It's our job to plant the seed.  We can take a moment to review our approach.  Were we unfriendly or did we make the person feel like they better come or else? Feedback to be a friendlier person, then leave the rest in God's hands.

The great Thomas Edison said, "I speak without exaggeration when I say that I have constructed 3,000 different theories in connection with the electric light, each one of them reasonable and apparently likely to be true. Yet only in 2 cases did my experiments prove the truth of my theory."  2998 failures?  No, just continual feedback on what would finally work.

The word success is found only one time in the Bible.  One time.

"This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success."  Joshua 1:8

Follow His Word, guaranteed success.