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Volume 3, Issue 5
October 2006 How Do You Spell Success? I recently found a really interesting quote by Deitrich Bonhoeffer: God’s cause is not always the successful one; we really could be unsuccessful and yet be on the right road. Now you may be asking, “Deitrich who?” Well, Bonhoeffer was a German pastor who was martyred at the hands of the Gestapo in 1945. While in a German prison, he penned Letters and Papers from Prison which became a precious testimony of Christian faith and courage in the face of persecution and death. Many of his other works have become classics to Christians and theologians all over the world. Life Together describes his revelation of what Christian community should be. In The Cost of Discipleship he coined the term “cheap grace.” His short life accomplished more for the kingdom than the lives of many who live a very long time. That is why the quote up above gained my attention. It is the epitome of Bonhoeffer’s life. Though he and the unique underground fellowship of which he was a part were unsuccessful in their attempts to stop Hitler, in God’s eyes he must truly be a success. How we deal with failure, or in my case failures, and what we do the second or third or hundredth time around reveals who we really are. I believe that in God’s economy, the only way we lose is to give up, and He NEVER gives up on us. ~ dhandy According to Proverbs Before King David died, he charged his son Solomon, the future King of Israel, with the following command: “Observe the requirements of the Lord your God and follow all His ways... so that you will be successful in all you do and wherever you go.” (1 Kings 2: 1-4) Some time later, King Solomon recorded some of the simple truths he had discovered along his journey. Today some of those wise principles for “prosperous,” or successful, living are stored in the book of Proverbs. True wisdom has very little to do with our accumulating information or knowledge; instead, it is the ”art of living skillfully in whatever actual conditions we find ourselves” (The Message Bible). What’s the bottom line - walking and talking and living as Jesus did. He is our model. May we all learn to live wisely as unto the Lord. Qualities mentioned in Proverbs that promote success
Qualities that prevent success
Success How do you measure success? Is it a big house, a shiny SUV, or a polo shirt with the collar popped up? Is it the church you go to, the political movement you defend, or the lack of care for an expression? Could it be knowing about the latest indie-rock-bluegrass-symphonic-folk band before any of your friends or starting a fad to exclude others or watching movies to talk about sub-sub-plots to make yourself sound brilliantly distant? Is it the school district you were in as a kid, the sports you conquered, or the classes and clubs that you have slain due to your mind-bending smarts? It is none of the above. It is HEART. Success equals HEART! Recently, I remembered high school and how much of a slacker I was. I belonged to the “just okay” club – just ok grades, just ok friends, just ok clothes. In 1992, I graduated almost under the radar. I am sure that no one noticed me walking the stage and accepting a diploma that I didn’t deserve. I was a real slacker... period. Today, 2006, I am happily married. I own a business that’s doing well and rental properties that make my house note each month. I have a nice car and a beefy truck. I put energy into the church I go to, take care of a grandmother, do my chores, pay taxes, and make time for friends. But, none of this matters unless I have HEART! Sometimes Laura and I have too much going on. Sometimes we are in the heat of burnout. During those times, we lose our compass, and the laundry piles up to our knees. There just doesn’t seem to be enough time, like today. While Laura and I were talking about all of this, I remembered my late grandmother Bonnie. She connected to people and cared for them. Traveling around the U.S., she befriended people who were burned, hurting, and discarded. One time, I heard a man say that if it weren’t for Bonnie, he would have never seen God. She was like a caring mom to those who had no mom and a partner who shared people’s burdens. Did these thousands of people know that Bonnie had a problem with chocolate or that she always fought her weight and had corns on her toes? No. So it is with us. The pressures we face in this life do not make us bad people. We can’t measure ourselves to a younger self or a lighter self. We are who we are, and we should never let the hard things in life cause us to forget who we are. It’s not about the past or the present or the future. It’s about HEART! Heart transcends time. Thank you, Bonnie, for your magnetic pull and for your encouragement to keep on. Thank you for teaching me to be myself. Thank you for allowing me to see that we are not measured by failures or successes. And thank you for reminding me to do what needs to be done even when no one sees. ~ kcatoe Land of the Free
I have seen some wonderful things since returning, things that have changed my life and been essential to my own recovery. Most of these things involve the power of prayer and intercession. During the last few weeks, I have gone through a huge transformation. God has begun to take me out of a life of filthy and destructive sinfulness, cleaning me up and setting me upon the Rock who will endure throughout eternity. Assuredly, this has been no work of my own. I have learned that the key to any transformation is complete submission to the Lord Jesus. For a long time, I walked around thinking, “I wish someone would fix me!” Many people mentioned prayer to me, but the thought would go in one ear and proceed out the other. Finally, I hit a brick wall and realized that something was missing in me. When that happened, I got really fed up and determined that I was going to follow Jesus and everything He stands for regardless of the cost. I figured, “What do I have to lose? Everything else in my life is a total mess.” That night, I got on my face and prayed really loudly, crying and telling Jesus how I honestly felt. I called Him by name and asked Him to forgive me. Guess what? He showed up! That moment He began to free me from strongholds and to make His home inside me. It was a truly wonderful experience. Since then, I have been learning the importance of prayer and intercession. The thing I never understood about prayer is that it opens up a portal to heaven. When we pray, we literally have the opportunity to change events in not only our lives but in the lives of others. One night, I had a dream about a friend of mine for whom I had been praying. I saw him literally beat wisdom over the head with a club when she was trying to speak to him. That night, I prayed and interceded for him like I never have before. The next night, I dreamed he was sitting at a table talking to her in a very humble manner. How awesome is that? Recently, at a conference I heard a prophetic word for the USA: ”Tears of intercession need to flow like the Mississippi River.” I believe the Lord is commissioning His intercessors to begin to pray for our nation. We have the power in Jesus to change and to bring about the transformation that is needed in our nation and the church at large and the world. Join with me today and let’s begin to pray. |
Top 10 Countdown #10 To guarantee success, act as if it were impossible to fail.
#9 Success is a journey, not a destination.
#8 I dread success. To have succeeded is to have finished one’s business on earth, like the male spider, which is killed by the female the moment he has succeeded in his courtship. I like a state of continual becoming, with a goal in front and not behind.
#7 Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.
#6 I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.
#5 Eighty percent of success is showing up.
#4 I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
#3 Neither success nor failure is ever final.
#2 To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
#1 God judges in order to have mercy and humbles in order to exalt. Only the humble will succeed.
Faithful Warriors Lord Jesus Christ, our Captain,
We’ll burn our boats behind us;
O Lord, our Leader,
~ amy carmichael Above and Beyond Above and beyond all sin
Above and beyond all shame
Above and beyond all else
Above and beyond all is God. ~ dhandy |
