Over the years, Mr. Fantastic and I have seen and experienced first-hand successes and failures alike in our ministry world.
I’m not sure which is more bewildering, attempting to identify the impetus for the success or put a finger on the cause of the failure.
Because in most cases, the successes and failures involved people doing all they could, giving their best, for God and his Kingdom.
If you are building an organization, attempting to spark people’s love for God, their understanding of the gospel, and their ability to bring Him alone glory, your job is never done. Success is both enticing and humbling, because even when you succeed you face the reality that you just as easily could have failed. There are so many variables outside of your direct control.
The only thing you can ever really ensure is your own choice to serve Him faithfully, trust Him fully, and live sacrificially.
God told me the other day, “The greatness is all mine.”
I am only beginning to understand all that He meant.
Ecclesiastes tells us that there is a season for all things. There are seasons of growth and flourishing. There are seasons of pruning and even death. There are days God made for rest and others He has made for glorious miracles. Most of us associate the miracles and the grace-filled rest with God’s perfect will, and the hard seasons, full of bitter pruning or death, with our own failure or someone else’s evil intent.
But in all seasons, His greatness is on display. We miss that greatness if we eat idleness when He has need of our labor, or if we scorn death from which He Means to bring life.
Jesus is at the center of every season. Loving Him first, and others after Him is always our highest aim and purpose.
The only way to truly fail is to miss the mark of obedience and love, to take our eyes off of God’s greatness, and lose sight of His radiant face.
May we pray and seek God in all we do, succeeding in this one thing: finding Him.
In our successes and in our failures, He is our great Immanuel, God with us….
