As I move into month six here in SE Asia, I am realy beginning to feel the stress of culture shock, language and culture barriers, the inability to make close friends, and a forboding sense of spiritual failure. You see, my expectation of what success looks like has been changing. Is success having a certain number of ‘spiritual’ conversations with friends? Is success accomplishing a task or solving a problem? What does success look like in God’s Word? To begin understanding this I had to keep in mind God’s purpose for humans and go to scripture. The following verses impacted me these past weeks though there are many more:
- Jeremiah says in chapter 22:13-16 that knowing God is to do righteousness and justice while pleading the cause of the needy.
- Psalms 37:1-7 calls me to live faithfully where God has put me while delighting in Him and trusting Him to act.
- In Romans 6:13 Paul calls me to present myself as a tool of righteousness at God’s side.
- In chapter 55:10-13 Isaiah promises that God’s Word will not return empty but will bring life and accomplish His purpose just like rain watering the earth.
An entire sermon could be structured around each one of those passages, but through these and my experiences, I have begun to internally apply a new definition of success. Success is not passive but an active choice to choose righteousness and justice, to live faithfully where God has put me while delighting and trusting in Him to bring out righteousness and justice in my life so that others can see and glorify Him. If I am faithful, then the lack of this fruit is not my fault, but if fruit is visible then it’s also not my fault. All the glory for fruit or lack thereof goes to God. My job is to plant seeds, water, and harvest what God is growing. Just like how chemistry and biology in plants causes them to grow, the active growth of someone’s faith is not my burden to bear. Like my soccer coach used to say “Do your best and leave to God the rest!” Though there are many avenues to define success and different applications for success, this is the definition that I am beginning to internalize and apply to my thinking. Doing this doesn't change the fact that culture and language barriers still suck, but I have faith and peace in knowing God's purposes will be fulfilled.