Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
“And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
Luke 10: 27 (ESV)“As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.”
II Thessalonians 3: 13 (ESV)
John Wesley, evangelist and the founder of the Methodist Church, said his heart was strangely warmed in his meeting on Aldersgate Street in London, England in 1738. In that moment, he felt he did trust in Christ alone for his salvation, and that he had his sins removed, and assured eternal life with God.
After that Wesley was completely sold out for Christ sharing his love and hope with everyone. Wesley was known to wait each day outside the coal mines in England to share the love of Christ, and to pray with the miners as they exited to safety from the day’s work underground in the mines.
John Wesley was tireless in his passion to advance Christ in the world around him and to serve those he met wherever he found himself.
At one point in his life he has been attributed to have said—
“Do all the good you can.
By all the means you can.
In all the ways you can.
In all the places you can.
At all the times you can.
To all the people you can.
As long as ever you can.”
That’s not a bad definition of success for your life and my life. It’s a definition that is not based upon circumstances. It’s not based upon the amount of our wealth or the degree of our power or the size of our platform. It’s not based upon wins, business deals, or number of degrees on our walls. It has no required threshold for its starting point—simply wherever you are with whomever you meet.
It’s a call to be a good steward of your life—of your gifts, talents, abilities and resources—and being faithful to use them for good in every opportunity you have or which comes before you. Every second of your time. Every ounce of your talent. Every penny of your resources. It’s using everything you have, and all that you are—for good.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a journalist, trash collector, teacher, coach, businessman, artist, politician, lawyer, custodian, or doctor. Or whether you’re a mother, father, son or daughter, grandparent or friend. What matters is that you are using all of who you are, and all you have been given, wherever you are and whenever, for the good of others, for God’s purposes and ultimately for God’s glory.
That’s success. Simply that, with Christ.
That will make a difference in the world.
That’s living a life of success.
That will change the world. That will get God smiling upon us.
Success. With Christ, simply this—
“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”
Do that for a life of success.
In His Name–Scott
