If you ever want to have an interesting conversation, get a bunch of people together and talk about the word “success.” Ask everyone in the group what they think it means and be prepared to hear all kinds of different answers.

What does success mean to you?

Most people think about it in terms of accomplishing some type of desired objective. The challenge with that view is that “desired objective” is very open-ended. For some people being drunk on a beach 24/7 may sound like a desired objective. I think that most of us would agree however, that this does not equate with our view of success.

What I do think is pretty unanimous when it comes to the way that people view success is that it is very results driven. If I told you that I was successful merely because I had great intentions, you would look at me funny and want to know what my resume looked like. This is where things start to get a little hazy for me.

You see, when I read through scripture I see a lot of talk about obedience. It is hard to argue with the fact that God desires for his people to obey him and trust him in the process. That being said, people who obeyed God historically did not always get the results that they desired.

John the Baptist was incredibly obedient in fulfilling the call that God placed on his life and he was beheaded. In the hall of fame of faith in Hebrews 11, the author speaks of men and women who were obedient and did not get the best results.

“There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning;[e] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.” (Hebrews 11:35-38)

Were these people successful? That depends on your definition. I think a better descriptor of their lives would be faithful. They believed that God had a plan for their lives and sought earnestly to fulfill that plan.

So I’m taking my cue from some of these heroes of the faith and kissing success goodbye. Now, please don’t misunderstand me and assume that I’m going to stop seeking God for ambitious results for my life. That being said, my job is obedience. My job is to trust him and to move in the direction he has called me to move in and to trust him for the results. Will this equate to success in the eyes of the world? Who cares?!

I think that Mother Theresa said it best by saying, “God has not called me to be successful; He has called me to be faithful.”

What does faithfulness look like in your life? How can you move one step further in that direction?