Success

A friend of mine posed the question today, "What is success to you?"  It's a good question, one that certainly makes me think.  The easy answer would be something along the lines of, "Success is getting a high-powered job, earning an advanced degree, achieving fame and fortune..."  But when I look at the numbers of failed marriages, suicides, bankruptcies, drug and alcohol addictions, you name it, among the so-called "successful" people in the world, I have a hard time accepting that as a valid measure of success.
As his gift to me for my college graduation, my brother made a beautiful video in which he taped members of my family saying words of encouragement or advice to me for my big day.  I'll never forget what my mother said.  "It's true," she said, "that you've overcome a lot of challenges to get where you are today.  But I'll tell you, if you hadn't done any of it, I still would be proud of you, because you have a relationship with the Lord.  And Lauren, I just want you to keep in perspective that although you've gotten a lot of honors and applaudits and approval from the world, that really none of it, in the eternal sense, matters.  I just want to make sure that you keep that in perspective that the most important thing ever, that will matter, is your relationship with the Lord."

So what is success to you?  The Bible says that success is to do what the Lord commands.  By that token, Jesus was a great success.  Of course as Christians we automatically assume that of course Jesus was a succees, but by the world's standards, He was a huge failure. 

Which tells me something about success.  You're going to have to choose what kind of success you want, who's standard you are going to be judged by, because often they won't coincide.  Sometimes, of course, they will - there are plenty of wealthy Christians who are in God's will - but often they won't.  So choose today, as Joshua did, whom you will serve.  As for me, I will serve the Lord.

1 Kings 2:1-4

¹Not long before David died, he told Solomon: ²My son, I will soon die, as everyone must. But I want you to be strong and brave. ³Do what the LORD your God commands and follow his teachings. Obey everything written in the Law of Moses. Then you will be a success, no matter what you do or where you go. ⁴You and your descendants must always faithfully obey the LORD. If you do, he will keep the solemn promise he made to me that someone from our family will always be king of Israel.

Proverbs 16:3

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.

The little things

For a twenty-one year old girl, I consider myself fairly well-traveled.  I have been to 5 continents, done homestays in 4 of them, and visited 11 countries.  I’ve taken buses in Costa Rica, ridden camels in Morocco, and explored the subway in Paris.  I’ve eaten fermented cabbage, boiled octopus, and fried grasshoppers.  So when I went to South Korea, I didn’t think I’d have a problem adjusting. 

But there’s something about Korea that sticks with you no matter where you go or what you do.  The frustration of not speaking the language or even knowing the letters permeates every facet of life.  Cultural differences abound everywhere you look.  The food, the clothing, the forms of respect; even simple things like doing laundry are different here.  And, because of that, things rarely go the way that I expect them to.  My mind has a set mold that determines what I expect to happen within certain contexts, and every single day – sometimes every single hour – that mold is being challenged and frustrated.

And it’s difficult never knowing what to expect.  Regardless of what country you are in, regardless of how fluently you speak the language or how comfortable you are in in your environment, there are always going to be times when things don’t go according to plan.  And it’s easy to let those little things eat away at you until you’re ready to explode.  You may seem fine…but when the scales finally tip, Heaven help the poor unsuspecting soul who received the brunt of your unexpected and undeserved rage.

But Proverbs warns us repeatedly against allowing anger to control us.  Anger is a cancer that will destroy not only ourselves, but also our relationships with everyone around us.  Be careful that you don’t let it consume you.  Don’t let the little things build up until you’ve created a monster.  Find a healthy outlet to let off steam.  Go running.  Call a friend.  Journal.  Whatever your outlet is, make sure that you find one.  Life is too precious to waste any time fretting about the things that don’t go your way.  Use them, instead, as an opportunity to ask God to teach you something new.  I promise you, He won’t disappoint you.

Proverbs 16:32
Better a patient person than a warrior,
   one with self-control than one who takes a city. 

Proverbs 15:18
A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict,
   but the one who is patient calms a quarrel. 

Proverbs 19:11
A person’s wisdom yields patience;
   it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.