014 - Obedience is always the win
“If you love me, you will keep my commands.”
John 14:15
“What’s the win?”
I’ve heard that question hundreds of times over my professional career as our team planned countless events that we hoped would leave a lasting impact for the Kingdom. Whether I was serving on staff at a church under my father-in-law’s leadership, whether I was pastoring a church I led, or whether I was serving on a marketing team for a nonprofit ministry, the strategy always started with defining the win. What that means is we wanted to be able to define what success looked like. Sometimes it was a certain number of attendees. Sometimes it was a dollar amount raised. Sometimes it was a number of salvations, baptisms, or decisions to take a next step in one’s faith journey. One thing has been and is consistently true for every organization I know of: the win is defined by the desired outcome.
But what if it’s not?
If you live by the results, you die by the results
Here’s the thing: if success depends on the results, then failure depends on them too. And you know what? No matter how hard you try, you can’t always control the results. You can plan the perfect event, pray your heart out, and execute everything perfectly; but people may not show up or respond as you had hoped. If the outcome is what makes you happy, then the outcome also has the power to make you sad. Why would you put your feelings and measure of success in the hands of a random result that has no reflection on your actual self? Just because 1,000 people didn’t show up doesn’t mean you’re failing; and just because 1,000 people showed up doesn’t mean you’re succeeding. Success defined by results is the world’s standard of measurement, and the Kingdom doesn’t operate by the world’s standards and measures. What if you’re succeeding by worldly standards but failing by Kingdom measures? What if your failing by worldly measures but succeeding by Kingdom standards?
As followers of Jesus, we can’t be handcuffed to the results. Our attitude, self-image, and measure of success cannot be defined by some as fickle as results.
obedience is always the win
In the kingdom of God, success isn’t measured by results; it’s measured by obedience. Success isn’t this article reaching 10,000 people. Success is writing this article. Success isn’t a total number of sales during a promotion. Success is having the promotion. Success isn’t the test scores of your students at the end of the semester. Success is pouring yourself faithfully into your students. Obedience is always the win!
What if all of your anxiety over the results of your business, your family, and your development were completely eliminated from your mind simply because you realized that obedience was your calling? Here’s the truth: results are God’s business; and neither you nor I are qualified for His position. Obedience is our business. We are to obey and leave the results to God. Shew! What a relief that all we have to do is obey. We don’t have to coerce people to show up, buy, or change. We just obey. We don’t have to heal anyone; we just have to pray, and the healing is up to God. The results aren’t on you; but the obedience is. It takes a lot of trust to release the results to God, but that’s kind of the point. If you’re stressed about the idea of releasing all the control of the results to God, let me ask you one simple question. You’ve held control and responsibility for the results up until now… how’s that going for you? It’s time to focus on obedience as the win, and let God take care of the rest. You do what you do best (obey), and let God do what He does best (the rest).
Don’t Give In
It’s just what the enemy wants - for you to see yourself through a false lens of failure or success simply because of the numbers. Don’t give in; you are in this world, not of it. You don’t have to play by the world’s heavy and unrealistic rules anymore. God has already beat the game, and you’ve already won. Now you get to live free to simply obey. Jesus put it this way in Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” What He has for you is not more striving. It’s rest -real and deep rest. Leave the results up to God, and find joy in the simple obedience - it’s always the win!
