But What is Success?

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- February 26, 2024 at 9:47 am #28891
  JOHN MUCKERMAN
  Participant
  Yesterday, I read this page from one of my favorite devotionals–New Morning Mercies by Paul David Tripp. I thought it was worth sharing. I was wondering if you also think it’s a good reminder about priorities and purpose:
  
  You and I don’t live by instinct. We are value-oriented, goal-oriented, purpose-oriented, and importance-oriented human beings. We are constantly rating everything in our lives. We all have things that are important to us and things that are not, things that mean a lot to us and things that mean very little. We willingly make sacrifices for one thing and refuse to sacrifice for another. We grieve the loss of one thing and celebrate the loss of another. We love what another person hates and we see as a treasure something that another person thinks is trash. We look at something and see beauty while the person next to us sees no beauty in it at all. Some things are so important to us that they shape the decisions that we make and the actions that we take. Some things command the allegiance of our hearts, while other things barely get our attention.
  
  In the center of this value system is our definition of success. No rational human being wants to be a failure. No one wants to think he has wasted his life. No one wants to think in the end he will look back and realize that he invested in things that just don’t matter. Everyone wants to think that his or her life is or will be successful. But what is success? Is it judged by the size of your house, the prominence of your friends, the success of your career, the power of your position, the size of the pile of your possessions, the perfection of your physical beauty, the breadth of your knowledge, or the list of your achievements? The problem with all these things is that they quickly pass away, and because they do, if you have lived for these things, you will eventually come up empty.
  
  Contrast that view of success with the success of God’s work in and through you. God offers you things of supreme value (his forgiveness, his presence, welcome into his kingdom, a clean conscience, and a pure heart). These things will never pass away. They are eternally valuable gifts of divine grace. This leaves you with this question: “What do I really want in life: the success of God’s agenda of grace or the fulfillment of my catalog of desires?” At the end of the day, what do you long for: for God’s grace to do its work or for more stuff that this physical world has to offer? Be honest. What kind of success are you hooking your heart to and how is it shaping the decisions you make and the actions you take?
  
  Feel free to share your thoughts on the FATC FORUM regarding success versus significance. Or, if you would ever like to get together in person to discuss this over coffee, bourbon or dinner please get in touch with me. I hope you agree, it’s a worthy topic.
  - This topic was modified 9 months ago by JOHN MUCKERMAN.
- February 26, 2024 at 11:08 am #28926
  
  Harold Bates
  Participant
  
  John, just read you last two forum topics. I can’t help but think they are related, connected. Sorrow and suffering strengthen us in our life long process to become more Christ like. The success of live through this process is reached when we know where we will be going when we leave this world. We will all see Terry and Bruce when we all reach the Kingdom that is prepared for us. Sorrow for those we love and lose is hard, but the joy knowing heaven awaits because the way we are trying to live our lives is the success we strive for. I am sorry for you losing your friends, but I know you will become stronger and be more successful. Someday all of us will join Terry, telling fishing stories and jokes again.
- February 29, 2024 at 10:29 am #29005
  
  JOHN MUCKERMAN
  Participant
  
  A few days ago, I shared some thoughts on significance verses success. It may have just been one of the many messages you were bombarded with during a fast paced day. Then again, for some of you it may have gotten you thinking about how you are investing your life. There is a brevity to life –and as we get older, the days seem to go by even more rapidly.
  
  Maybe this desire for significance and to invest in things that really matter has taken root in your heart, but the fear of failing and the busyness of life is choking it out. We are each masters at looking the other way, procrastinating, talking ourselves out challenges. Some of us just settle for less, some of us fear the unknown –but fear is a liar!
  
  Here are quotes from two famous and inspirational men. Perhaps they will talk to you–maybe even motivate you to move forward out of your comfort zone and to take action:
  
  Mark Twain said: “Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that made you smile. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
  
  Teddy Roosevelt said: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and tears; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat.”
  
  Your thoughts?
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