The Secret to Success

If you haven’t caught it from my posts so far, I am a mother.  I have put everything aside and committed all my time and energy into raising our five children.  That alone keeps me quite occupied.  Aside from that, a good amount of my time and energy goes into making sure things are running smoothly enough at home so that my husband, Slavic, can run his business to support the family and devote as much time as possible into investing in the next generation through the youth ministry at our church.  Some of the things I keep running smoothly include keeping the house clean, meals prepared, and bills paid.  I am also now in the beginning stages of running my own small business.  Just to be clear, I’m going somewhere with this, not simply blessing you with my to-do list.

In the midst of all these things I must manage on a daily basis, I find myself filled with an intense yearning to impact this world on a large scale.  My mind starts running through countless ideas on how to accomplish this.  I begin to see myself planning and strategizing with various groups of people.  I have an endless list of ideas of what needs to be done and how to accomplish it. 

I understand the need.  I sense true compassion for those in pain.  Yet, because I understand the magnitude of the need, I feel like a mosquito trying to bring down an elephant, like a child throwing pebbles at a giant. I long to be the good in this world, to leave a meaningful impact on humanity before my life is over.  Yet, so often I am flooded with feelings that I am not enough, no matter how much I do, it is never enough.  Never meaningful or important enough.

 Let me establish something very important here: the debt that has been paid for my salvation, I will never, ever be able to do enough to pay back.  By my own strength, I truly am not enough.  By myself, the longest list of to-do’s and even accomplishments still will not be enough.  I can strategize my whole life, and even come up with some great ideas.  But it will still be not enough.

When I become overwhelmed with all these thoughts, I hear a familiar gentle voice drop one thought into my storm of thoughts.  It is the voice of the Master Strategist.  He simply says, "Come strategize with me!"  And I realize, He already has a plan.  He already has the perfect strategy.  His plans always come to fruition and His strategy NEVER fails. 

I remember the story when God asked Adam and Eve, "Who told you that you are naked." What I hear God asking in those words is, "Who told you that what you have is not enough." Who is telling you the things you do mean nothing?  It is our own futile ambitions, trying to do something by our own strength.  When we step away from our partnership with God, as Adam and Eve chose to do, we truly are naked, never reaching a place where we are enough, no matter how many leaves we stack up.

Another story I remember is the story of Moses.  Moses is now remembered as one of the greatest leaders of his people.  But I recall a moment in his story when Moses said I can't speak! My words have no power! Yet, all God needed him to do was partner with Him and simply speak. 

Here is another one.  David watched over his father’s sheep.  His greatest human skill, aside from playing a musical instrument, was flinging pebbles.  And he did both faithfully.  Simple acts of service, but faithfully.  It turns out that when these simple acts of service are in partnership with God, they are made powerful enough to destroy empires and bring down giants.

The eloquence of Moses’ speech had no greater effect than the size of the pebbles in David's sling.  It's not about the size of the stone, the smoothness of language, or the magnitude of my ministry. It’s ALL about PARTNERING with God. 

More often than we realize, real heroes and giants of faith were people just like you and I, who did not have any super-human abilities.  They simply partnered with God.  Today, many heroes of the faith wear aprons or go to work every day.  They keep meeting a need on a daily basis, even when not praised, appreciated, or even noticed.  They live for others, speak the truth tirelessly, and never stop.  They do simple acts of service, consistently, and in partnership with God.

Here is what I heard God speaking to me in the midst of my frustration that I wasn’t doing anything important enough: Go ahead and throw your pebbles, speak your simple words, serve the people you have around you and leave the power of impact up to God because it’s NOT by might, NOR by power, but by God's Spirit. It always HAS, always IS, and always WILL BE.  It was when Eve reached for the forbidden fruit, when Moses spoke his simple words, when David reached for the pebbles, and will be when you live to truly impact humanity. 

The greatest strategy to success in every single day of our life is to start the day with a strategy meeting with God.  He has the grandest of all plans, yet never misses a single detail.