Blog

PASTORS+DESK

Every Monday Anna’s workplace, the SAN Hospital, distribute a ‘Monday Mission Message’. She shared last Monday’s message with me and I thought it worth sharing a portion with you.

Success is a most misunderstood term. Its Latin origin is from “successus” – which literally means “an advance” or “a coming up.” It seems that the intent was to communicate a journey, rather than an end-result. If a journey is “successful” then the end-result will also be so.

We often confuse the EVIDENCE of success with success itself. For example, when a student graduates and receives his or her degree with all the pomp and ceremony that goes with it – we think: This is success! No, it isn’t – this is the EVIDENCE of success. Success was daily, faithful and persistent pursuit of a vision. Success was not giving up when you felt like there is no point going on. Success was submitting that paper by due date, passing that exam… Success was seeing the end from the start and being energized by it. Success is a process – not an end-point.

Faithful implementation of agreed upon strategy is success. Understanding our strong points and our weaknesses and working as a team to offset our weak points and leverage our strong points is success. Being on time is success. Saying a kind word is success.

 

So success is not something we suddenly stumble upon. Success is just evidence of our commitment, loyalty, hard work and vision. Such understanding of success gives us reasons to celebrate on a daily basis, rather than just special award-ceremonies.

For the Christian, success is simply faithfulness in following Jesus.