There are some things that are easy to see whether you’ve accomplished your goal or not. Did you win a game? Did you win the race? Did you complete the work you said you would by the time you said?
These are all goals that we set. Something that we have decided is an important mark for us to hit. But what happens when we’re more lenient on these goals? What if our goal becomes having a good time playing the game? Winning may the easiest way to do that, but isn’t the only way.
What if you set your goal to run the fastest you could? Winning might be the easiest way to accomplish this, but it’s no longer necessary.
Then there are things even beyond this that are difficult to quantify. Who won the debate? Was the party a success? Questions that don’t necessarily have an answer. To some, it may be one answer, to another something completely different. Maybe the expectations were set such that to succeed, your candidate in the debate was supposed to never let the opponent get to a topic that he was weak on.
The opponent did bring up the topic but your candidate ended up totally mastering the conversation and came out looking 10x better. Was that a failure? Yes. The goal was failed, but the idea behind the goal that was set was met.
Sometimes when we set goals, we don’t give ourselves enough room for how to accomplish those goals. Being specific about what we want to accomplish is important, but we need to give ourselves easy ways to get there and understand the big picture behind the goal.
On my mind tonight is measuring the success of a party. My parents have always been some of the most hospitable people I know. We constantly had people in our home for dinner or other random parts of the day. I desire deeply for any house I live in to be the same way but I now realize the work and selflessness it takes to create this kind of environment for your home.
It always stood out to me in Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3 that one of the qualifications for overseer was to be hospitable. It seems like such a simple qualification but really impacts all areas of life. Hospitality isn’t just having an open house but it’s a way of living openly with others. Caring for others more then you care about your own comfort.
I’m not there yet. I’m still selfish in many ways, looking to my own wants and needs way before I look to others, but I know that God will use even my “failures” to produce success stories.
At the end of your life, success and failure are crucial. Not because of what you did but because of what you believed. We can measure all the other successes and failures we have in this life, but not even one of the successes will matter if we fail the last test.
But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. – Acts 20:24