How We Tend to Measure Success

Psalms 119:59-64 ESV

“When I think on my ways,

    I turn my feet to your testimonies;

I hasten and do not delay

    to keep your commandments.

Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me,

    I do not forget your law.

At midnight I rise to praise you,

    because of your righteous rules.

I am a companion of all who fear you,

    of those who keep your precepts.

The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love;

    teach me your statutes!”

Fifty-five years ago I graduated from high school, just barely. I had low reading comprehension (I read on a 4th grade level), and I was greatly lacking in confidence. So, with the exceptions of music and Spanish and speech and health classes, I did poorly, and I graduated high school with a 1.4 GPA (D average). My English classes were mainly literature, and since that involved reading comprehension, I did poorly in them, too.

Recently I was encouraged to join a group on Facebook (social media) for my high school. I had been avoiding that for some time but I finally believed the Lord was giving me the go ahead, and so I joined. My first post was just introducing myself and the second post was asking a question about the first name of my favorite teacher (my Spanish teacher). And in my third post I asked everyone what was their favorite memory about high school. 

In my fourth post I asked, "What difference did your years of high school have on your life in the life path or the career choice you made for yourself?" I got some very good and interesting responses. But that got me thinking about how we, as humans, tend to measure success. For I did not succeed in high school to attain what I was supposed to, nor did I in my first round of college. I was still lacking in confidence and in reading comprehension.

But did that make me not successful? Did I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior back then? Yes! Was I following him with my life? Yes, not perfectly, but I was growing in my knowledge and understanding of him and of his will for my life, and I was following his lead in most things, and I was growing in my walk of faith, which was in a forward direction. I was singing in the church choir and I was teaching children’s Sunday School classes.

Then I dropped out of college part way through, got a job, got married, and a few years later had my first child. And then I had three more children over a span of about four years. I still sang in the choir and did solos and duets and trios and quartets, and I still worked with children in the nursery or in assisting my husband who taught the youth group, and I continued to grow in my walk of faith. But did that make me not successful?

In reading the people’s responses to my last post, although the responses were good, I came away with this feeling that success in life was being measured by how well we did scholastically in school and by what kind of career we ended up in and by how well we did in that career choice. I didn’t hear many speak of their “life path,” but mostly on their “career choice.” And I didn’t hear much on how high school impacted their lives in general.

So did that make me not successful because I got poor grades and I dropped out of college and I didn’t have a long and successful and lucrative career in any particular job? By human standards, I was probably not considered as a success. Many times people would ask me, “Do you work?” I always hated that question. They wanted to know if I had a paying job. I answered, “Yes,” because I was a homemaker, a mother of four, and a servant of Christ.

So, I like verse 59 here when it says, “When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies.” And for believers in Jesus Christ, this is what we should do when we think over our lifetime. We should not measure ourselves by the standards of the world but by God’s measurements. And we find those in the Scriptures. Are we following Jesus in obedience? Are we serving the Lord in ministry to others? Are we living holy and godly lives?

Are we loving other people with the love of Christ? Are we listening to God’s call on our lives, and are we following the Lord wherever he leads us in doing what he has called us to do? Are we dying to sin daily, not yielding to it habitually and deliberately? Is Jesus Christ truly Lord and Master of our lives, or are we still running our own lives, depending on the flesh, doing what we want, following the ways of the world, and not following God with our lives?

For God doesn’t measure success in the same ways that humans do. Success in the eyes of the Lord involves us surrendering our lives to Jesus Christ, leaving our lives of sin behind us, and following him in obedience and to whatever paths he has chosen for us individually and collectively. And it may involve rejection and persecution and being disregarded as not successful by other humans. But we should not let that discourage us.

Success is “though the cords of the wicked ensnare me, I do not forget your law” (the word of God, the Scriptures). Success is “at midnight I rise and praise you, because of your righteous rules” (the gospel of our salvation, God’s New Covenant). Success is “I am a companion of all who fear you” (who walk in the fear of the Lord in honor and reverence to God, believing God and his word, that he will do as he said, and to act accordingly).

So, don’t measure your life or anyone else’s life by the standards and the thinking and the evaluating and measurements of this world and of human flesh. Measure your life and the lives of other humans by God’s standards, and by his Word (his commandments under the New Covenant and his gospel of our salvation), but in context, please. You may appear as a failure in the eyes of flesh, but you are a success if you follow Jesus with your life.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

Songs in the Night  

An Original Work / December 18, 2013

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84

Lord, I praise You forevermore.

You, my Savior, I now adore.

Hope in heaven awaiting me,

Because You died at Calvary.

I have been forgiven,

And I’m bound for heaven.

Jesus set me free from

All my sin, I say.

I will praise Him always!

Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:

Overcame death, my vict’ry won!

Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!

I rejoice in His love for me.

I will walk in vict’ry!

My sin is but hist’ry!

I am free to please Him

With my life today.

I will love Him always!

Lord, I thank You for giving me

A new life bought at Calvary.

Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.

Tender mercies now flow within.

Lord, I am so thankful;

Through my Lord, I’m able

To sit at His table;

Fellowship with Him.

I will thank Him always!

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