Choose Life: Readings For Radical Disciplesনমুনা

Successful or Faithful?

We mustn’t confuse success with faithfulness. There is nothing wrong with being successful, but it doesn’t mean you’ve been faithful. Or maybe we simply need to redefine or qualify what success is. Mother Teresa of Calcutta was once asked, “How do you measure the success of your work?” She looked puzzled for a moment and then replied, “I don’t remember that the Lord ever spoke of success. He spoke only of faithfulness in love. This is the only success that really counts.”

Today’s short verse says three things: God calls us. He’s faithful. He’ll do it. If we respond to his call, he will be faithful, and he’ll accomplish what he wants. That’s what Mother Teresa is getting at when she rejects success for “faithfulness in love.”

Are we faithful in what God has entrusted us with- in terms of our talents, our finances, our relationships, our ambitions? Are our priorities aligned with his? Whether we’re involved in business, politics, education, or the arts, are we blindly pursuing personal glory and success, or seeking to be Christ’s ambassador where he has placed us?

Oswald Chambers writes, “We are not called to be successful in accordance with ordinary standards, but in accordance with a ear of wheat falling into the ground and dying, becoming in that way what it never could be if it were to abide alone.”

The nature of faithfulness in love is that it is sacrificial. Christ laid down his life for us. In turn what will that look like for you this week? 

Lord, I choose to be faithful to your call on my life today, in the big things and in the little things. Amen!