What Is the Measure of Your (or Anyone Else's) Success?

Some years back, Christian alt-rocker Steve Taylor asked, “What is the measure of your success?” It's a fair question for everyone, regardless of their faith or lack thereof.

When one thinks of how one might define success, the measuring sticks that most readily suggest themselves are how many souls someone has won to Christ, how righteously someone is living, and the like. While these do matter, they overlook one vital element.

In the Bible, stories abound of people who led lives, in part or in whole, that were anything but what would normally be considered morally upright or fruitful. Nevertheless, God used them in a moment of His design and choosing to further His glory. It’s not that God overlooked their foibles and failings. It’s that He used them anyway.

The new episode of Cephas Hour, my podcast featuring the finest in Christian rock and pop from then and now, looks at this and other matters of importance. Artists are:

• Bob Bennett
• Casting Crowns
• Larry Norman
• Love Song
• Mac Powell with Cliff and Danielle Young
• Petra
• Rachel Wilhelm
• Rachel Wilhelm and Phil Keaggy
• Richie Furay
• Steve Taylor
• The Choir
• Van Zant
• Vector

You can listen to the podcast on demand at its website (https://cephashour.com/2024/09/25/cephas-hour-episode-133-release-date-september-25-2024/) or wherever you get your podcasts as long as it isn’t Spotify. Hope it helps, and thanks.

Some years ago, I heard a story about a church hosting a summer camp for its kids at a campsite in the local woods. The church’s pastor decided to pay a visit and see how things were going, so naturally, all the youthful attendees gathered around to hear what he had to say.

The pastor wanted to make his visit relaxed, so he asked the younger kids in attendance, “I have a question for you. What’s small, furry, has a bushy tail, and collects nuts to eat?”

No one replied. The pastor asked again. “Now, I’m sure at least one of you knows. What’s small, furry, has a bushy tail, and collects nuts to eat?”

Still no reply, as the kids stared nervously at the ground. The pastor, by now becoming a little bit miffed, asked a third time. Finally, one small voice quietly replied, “Well, I'd say it’s a squirrel, but since we’re at church camp, to be safe, I’ll say Jesus.”

Humor aside, the boy’s answer has a kernel of truth. As one of God’s creations, the squirrel fits perfectly into its role in the earthly creation’s intricate system of checks and balances, advances and retreats, that keep life humming on this planet. Therefore, in the common squirrel, we see God’s marvelous handiwork. And, as we who believe know, Jesus is God. He said so Himself when He told the angry crowd, “Before Abraham was born, I am!” That said, a squirrel is still a squirrel.

There is a vast difference between being judgmental and telling someone the truth. When we apply our personal standards to the behavior of others, or for that matter ourselves, to determine whether they or we are living up to those standards, we are being judgmental. We must be far more concerned about our attitude than what the other person is or is not doing. When we apply straightforward Biblical standards to ourselves or others, we should be immediately humbled before God, calling others to repentance and righteous living even as God calls us to the same.

Judgments are not always negative. They can be equally destructive when falsely laudatory. Congratulating someone for being able to color in between the lines when they are supposed to be able to draw a quality freeform portrait does no one any good. There are standards in life, both this one and the life to come. There are absolutes both in this life and in the life to come. Stating facts is not judgment. It’s love in action.

Jesus makes an interesting statement in the Gospel of Luke.

“Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

Rather harsh, what say? And yet, utterly truthful.

Beware the believer who sells himself or herself as a brand. Tread cautiously near the believer who has an opinion on everything. No matter how excellent select works by that believer may be, they are not the fountainhead of all wisdom, and they are not above sin. They, too, have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Our glory is in identification with Christ, which we receive through His grace and sacrifice on our behalf. The moment someone strikes a pose as a super saint yet whose words and deeds consist of little, if anything, more than, “Look at me,“ look out.

We don’t have to force-feed the gospel into everyday life. Everyday life is always, and already, thoroughly interwoven by and with the gospel. When we open our eyes, we see it. We sometimes incorrectly use the example, “Well, I can write about the light, or I can write about what I see in the light.“ Actually, these two things are one and the same.

The further we go into our walk with Christ, the more we see His presence in everything and in the everyday. The deeper we go into His Word, the more we discover how the spiritual is not above the temporal but explains and illuminates the temporal. Our God is a mighty God working through all things, even as Paul wrote in Romans: