Million dollar question: What does success look like?

Ask 10 people and you could get 10 different answers.  That’s not just because it looks different to different people, it’s because it IS different to different people.  So if success is different for each of us, why do we find ourselves comparing our lives or callings to other people’s? OK, enough with the rhetorical questions because Jesus himself addressed this!

In the end of the book of John we find Jesus having already risen from the dead and talking with Peter. At the end of their conversation Jesus says to him, “Follow me!” (Jn 21:19) That’s when Peter falls into the comparison trap and looks at John and asks “what about him?” Here’s the problem with that; Peter wasn’t John.  Jesus knew the plan for both of them, but it wasn’t the same! Jesus got real and responded with “… what is that to you? YOU must follow ME.”

Too often we look to other people’s lives and compare their calling or impact to ours.  The big issue here is that we are looking to others instead of to Christ for our validation.  The truth is that each of us have been blessed with different talents and gifts.  Someone else’s perceived success doesn’t mean they have more favor, it means they have a different calling.

The problem lies in the very topic of this entire conversation: success. If we can’t define it, maybe it’s not what we should be striving for!

Why didn’t it matter to Peter what Jesus had for John? Because Jesus cares less about your view of earthly success, and more about you fulfilling the calling you have been CREATED for!  Stop striving for other people’s “success” and find the fulfillment of following Jesus’ plan for you!