As Jesus is calling us to step away from Church Planting (read the update letter here), I have had to redefine success biblically and what that looks like in my life. Here's what I've learned:
WHAT IS SUCCESS?
In order to determine success or failure we will have an expectation of one or the other. We must have an idea of what success looks like, or what constitutes failure. Even if we decide to simply “hope for the best” there is an underlining of what “the best” must be.
We make success vs. failure lines in the sand in every area of our lives, be it financially, as we homeschool, in our ministries, our marriage, our health, our parenting…
And more often than not the concept of success is based on numbers. How many dollar signs are in our savings? How are our kids’ GPA? How many ladies are in the Bible Study? How many happy years have we been together? How many pounds are on the scale? How many years before the kids are potty trained?
But in God’s economy success is measured in a vastly different way. In Kingdom credits for the Christian woman's success is measured only in faithfulness.
Have we stewarded our finances well? Have we sought to instruct our children in knowledge and care of God’s world? Have we loved the women in the Bible Study well? Have we sacrificially cared for our spouse? Have we honored the Lord with our bodies? Have we shepherded our children in light of the gospel?
THE GIFT OF FAITHFULNESS
Numbers do not define success. Faithfulness does. And even then, it is inevitable that we will be unfaithful.
We are called to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. Yet we so often love our comfort more than that which is eternal.
We are commanded to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. Yet we seek fairness, are sharp to answer, and place our busy schedule above God’s to-do list for us.
We ought to rejoice in all things, giving thanks to God, but we grumble in our hearts, and harbor bitterness toward our husband and kids.
If faithfulness is the measure of success we are to aim for, well, we’ve failed.
BUT GOD.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:4-10
If the very faith that saves us is a gift, and such a huge deal is made out of the fact that we bring NOTHING to the covenant table, wouldn’t it also stand to reason that not just our faith, but our FAITHFULNESS is a gift from God?
WORK OUT THE FRUIT
When we list the fruit of the Spirit we have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Faithfulness is a gift, found only in the Spirit, and we as Christians have full access and ownership thereof.
The fruit of the Spirit has been likened to a muscle. The more we use it the stronger it gets. The more we neglect it the more it atrophies. The muscle never goes away, but we have a responsibility in how we use it.
So in every area of our life, financially, as we homeschool, in our ministries, our marriage, our health, our parenting–we are called not to achieve any particular number, but simply faithfulness.
Faithfulness to give our absolute best every day (at whatever level “our best” might be that day), knowing that by the mercies of God, we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1)
We will fail. This side of heaven, and for as long as our souls remain housed in sin-broken bodies, we will never be completely faithful. Which makes the gift of Jesus that much better. HE is our perfection. He stands in our place before the Father. When we fail He succeeds. Where we are unfaithful, He remains faithful.
So if Jesus is our success, we’ve already succeeded.
Now this is not a ticket to lazy living or half-hearted attempts to do the right thing. No. Quite the opposite.
Out of our gratitude and joy and wonder at all Jesus is and all that He has done, we will be compelled to be faithful as a response to His faithfulness. And the more we understand His heart and appreciate His gift the more natural it is to respond in faithfulness to Him.
Philippians 2:12-13 says, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Our salvation is a gift. But we have a responsibility in how we respond with the rest of our life. We must “work out” what God has “worked in.”
JESUS LIVES THE FRUIT
Thinking back to the fruit of the Spirit, we see Jesus as the perfect personification of each attribute, and it was displayed beautifully at the cross.
God’s LOVE was what drove Jesus to the cross.
It was for the JOY that was set before Him that He endured the cross.
PEACE between God and man was the purpose of the cross.
PATIENCE compelled Jesus to pray from the cross “Lord, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.”
His KINDNESS to suffer the cross is what leads us to repentance.
GOODNESS is the standard that was required at the cross.
His FAITHFULNESS to see God’s plan through earned us redemption at the cross.
GENTLENESS at the cross withheld God’s wrath from all whose sin Jesus bore.
SELF-CONTROL kept Jesus on the cross until it was finished.
Christ is the perfect exemplification of the fruit of the Spirit, so when we exercise the fruit we are looking like Christ. And when we reverse engineer the process, as we gaze on Christ we will be transformed to look more like Him, and will thus be living in and working out the Sprit’s fruit.
As we read in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
In seeking Christ we can not help but worship. And in worshiping we will look more like Him. And in looking like Him we are exercising the fruit of the Spirit. And one aspect of that fruit is faithfulness. And faithfulness is success.
THIS IS WHERE IT GETS PERSONAL
But faithfulness doesn't always (usually) come with numbers. And that reality is attempting to challenge my heart's peace. I know truth is not tied to other people's perception, but I'm often tempted to consider the falsehood that others' thoughts determine my success.
But hallelujah--I'm actively fighting against that fear of man which is SO good! Struggling rather than giving in is a WIN! The fear I'm currently kicking in the teeth is this: If people are unaware of where our hearts have been and how we’ve been living faithfully, they might think that where we are now looks like failure. Here's what they'd see:
We invested three years into this church plant endeavor and we never got to see the church happen. We have no numbers to show success- zero people on our core team, zero dollars put toward the church building, zero converts, zero baptisms. It looks like a failure.
For the last several months we’ve been hitting a number of divine roadblocks, the main one being the lack of people for a core team.
So just this last week we called our main supporters to pray fiercely for us, and had some crucial conversations. As of this past Monday, with much prayer and wise counsel we are confident that Jesus is calling us to pivot. (Oh, goodness, I just started to cry as I wrote that. Wow. Grieving is going to be thick. It's a good grief, though, for we are leaving a good thing for a better thing... but still... Oof. Hold on, I need a tissue.) *sniff
Pivoting is HARD. But.
We have assurance that we have accomplished everything Jesus has called our family to do here, and now He has more for us to do elsewhere. We trust that the church planting vision will be passed to someone who can take it even further, and we are grateful for how these last several years have perfectly trained and equipped us for what's next.
We still love Calistoga and desire to see a church planted there, but Jesus has made it clear that He is now calling us out of the Napa Valley. We’re not sure what the Lord is doing, we are sure that it is good.
WORTH IT
We don't have a church to show for the three years we invested, but we’ve been faithful. And therein lies success.And Jesus will use that in eternal ways that we can’t even imagine. There is a grieving for all we had hoped to see, and in the knowledge that we must say goodby to sweet friends and beautiful opportunities.
We may not see the fruit of our labor, we may not have even planted seeds, but we tilled the soil. We were faithful. And even though we don’t have tangible numbers, we have a palpable faith that in Kingdom economy Jesus has redeemed our efforts as success.
So I must remind my own heart: be it financially, as we homeschool, in my ministries, my marriage, my health, my parenting… I must seek Jesus and be faithful. Therein lies my success.
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