Success

I have been wondering about this idea called success for some time now. What is success or to be successful. The dictionary states:

1: outcome, result

2a: degree or measure of succeeding b: favorable or desired outcome; also: the attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence.

3: one that succeeds.

Today, it seems to have a meaning much like the second in which we equate success with monetary and material gains. Is being successful when someone has achieved something that makes them happy? Can success be just living life? Is it one, all, a mix of, none of these or something completely difference all together?

As a Christian I feel that gaining wealth and material possessions is the opposite of success. If we do happen to have such things, we should give of them freely. The gospels seem to have more appreciation for those who have not or if they have they give what they have. So to me, that definition of success can be laid aside and forgotten.

If success is measured purely by happiness, then you are basing your success on a mere feeling which has the possibility of wavering day to day or even hour to hour. Also, there is no set way to measure this idea of success if this is how you see it. Here it is only a subjective matter. I kind of like this though because even if by the world’s standards you are not successful, you have the possibility to see yourself as successful. But this may cause you to seek only happiness in your life. Now I hope for all men to be happy with life, but seeking only happiness is an activity done in vain. This goes back to it being a mere feeling which can sway as a boat in the ocean’s waves. This search can also lead one down paths that only leave a man broken, unsatisfied, and constantly seeking. This is no way to live ones life. Just as we dismissed the last idea of success, I will dismiss this one as well.

This leads me to still wonder what success is. Could it be doing something great for the world? If this is the case then only a handful of people that have ever lived were successful. If this were my idea of success then I am left with the outlook that I will probably never be successful in life. How motivating.

I wonder if we are even qualified to judge if we or anyone else is successful. If we as Christians are meant to live life as God would like us to, then isn’t He the only one who is qualified to judge success. In other words, success would be striving after God and His desires. If that is the case, then I feel like I have fallen short of that, but by His grace I know that being successful will not come by my own power. This is something I am learning the difficult way right now. I desire to be successful but must learn that it only comes by God’s grace and following Him every step of the way.

Today marks the 8th week of not working. The first 3 weeks were not bad. I had time to relax and read. Now it has just become something that is disliked. I am half tempted to start spending my days on a street corner just to occupy time. There are jobs out there, most of which I am not qualified for and the rest are very uninspiring to me. I have been tempted to leave Springfield and see what else is out there, but I know that if i do that I will just go climbing instead of look for a job.

Another problem I have been faced with is a finger injury. It has been around 4 weeks or so now since I did injure my finger, but it is still no where near where I wish it was. The injury I am speaking up is a torn A4 pulley in my right ring finger. For those who don't know what that is, it is the ligament that wraps around the underside of the finger, between the knuckles, to hold the tendon close to the finger bones. So, even taking a climbing trip right now seems useless, unless it was to Indian Creek.

Hopefully if I continue to not have a job I might actually finish one of my projects which I started this past summer. When i was at home this summer I started to make myself a new chalk bag. On it is an elaborate embroidery covering a larger portion of the front. Now eight months into it and I am no where close to being done.

That has been my life the past few months. I hope you enjoyed.

General Revelation

Recently I have had some great discussion about general revelation and have read a friends thoughts on it. While sitting here digesting some of my thoughts on it I am reminded of many times that God's beautiful creation has drawn me to worship the one who created it all. Being a climber I sometimes have the opportunity to see things from perspectives that other people may not have. Many of these times I am so focused at what I am doing at that moment, such as climbing, that I miss those chances. But then there are the times where I take the chance to see the creation around me, take in the fall colors of the trees, drool over the formations in the rock, breath in the freshness of a multitude of fresh smells, gaze into a sunset or even a sunrise, or take the chance to admire one of God's greatest creations, the people around me.
One activity I wish that I would do more often is to sit in a busy place and just watch people. Watch their expressions, their reactions to life, and see them enjoying life. Doing this also brings about a mood of somberness in me because many of those people don't even know the one who created them so beautifully. As I write this images of when I would watch people pop into my head. The thing that saddens me the most is that they are so caught up in their own lives that they miss out on seeing the Creator in what is around them.
Tomorrow I plan on going out and experiencing the creation through my favorite activity, climbing. I hope that I will take, even if it is just a second, time to remember my God and worship Him.

Trying to Live Correctly

For a few years now my thoughts and convictions on certain subjects has changed drastically. Two and a half years ago, I was planning on going into the military as a chaplain. That seemed like a great career path and even a great way to minister. I was planning on going in to the Navy, so if I would have been stationed on a ship, I would be around the same people for an extended period of time. I would be able to build relationships with people because I would be living with them constantly. Then things changed for me. I started to question many American ideals which had been almost indoctrinated in me. I started to ask myself what it is like being an American and trying to live according to what the Bible says. This is much tougher than it seems. Almost every Christian I had met at this point seems to be very pro-American lifestyle and that to question that lifestyle is as if you are securing yourself a spot in eternal damnation.

Then I also started to realize that some views I held on certain topics within theology may not be correct, so they started to change. Once when explaining my beliefs to a high schooler at a D-Now I was sentenced to damnation again over that fact that I don't believe that there will be a rapture as he sees it.

More recently I have been trying to learn about the kingdom of God. What is looks like and how we are to live as citizens. So once again the American lifestyle becomes a stumbling point. My views have become so that if I were to mention them to most Christians they try to make me feel as if I am a horrible American and Christian as if those two must be grouped together. I believe that they are very separate. To be a Christian, which would make us members of the kingdom Jesus inaugurated, would mean that I will not be a good American. America, even though it has many Christians, is still founded on the way of the world. I feel that to live as Jesus did is to turn that way on its head and act as if that is the norm.

Even tonight, I have read comments to a blog I read regularly that bash a Christian's thoughts on a moral subject. I would agree with the writer of that blog. But while reading the reaction to it I began to see how that person was basing things on the ways in which the world works instead of how the kingdom works. I know that I am not perfect and that my way of life is not always of the kingdom, but I hope that every day my life is based less on the ways of this world and more on the way Jesus would have me act as a kingdom citizen.