Measuring Success
How do you measure success? The challenge is knowing both what to measure as well as how to measure. Often we use scales the world offers us that are based on our limited human understanding, and we measure things like our productivity, our influence, or our popularity. We get caught up in measuring how fast we are going and how much we are accumulating. We try to calculate strange equations such as time = money. Then we use these assessments to measure our worth. But such units of measure are unreliable, because they are calibrated to earthly systems, and they turn our focus to the wrong things.
Once when I was a child, I was running as fast as I could across our large backyard. I was super impressed with my speed, and I watched as the ground rushed by beneath my sneakered feet! I was on fire! I imagined I was setting a world record! Look at me go! But then, because my eyes were fixed only on my progress – on measuring my speed, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going! I ran straight into a coil of metal wire hanging on the wall of the shed and cut myself badly!
It is possible to get so caught up in the things we are trying to measure about ourselves that we forget to look around. And the pressures of productivity can rob us of the life we are invited into. I love these verses from The Message translation: “So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ – that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective” (Colossians 3:1-2).
If we have been measuring our success as the world does, we need a shift of perspective. We need to see what God sees and understand what He measures, because the only dependable scales are those that reflect God’s heart, His ways, and His understanding. Deuteronomy 25:15 instructs, “You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” This was a very practical command to the people of Israel as they settled into a new land and became a nation with their own laws and practices. We can recognize the rightness of this order for justice and good relations among the people. Yet, there is also a deeper application for our lives: whatever scales we use to measure the weight of our lives will affect our well-being and our ability to live long in all that the Lord God has for us.
Jesus cautioned, “Consider carefully what you hear. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more” (Mark 4:24). Of course, we understand the application of this truth to how we treat other people. We know that if we are stingy, critical, or judgmental toward others, this often comes back on us. But what about how we treat ourselves? What if we consistently measure ourselves short? What if we judge ourselves harshly? “With the measure that you use, it will be measured to you.”
At times, most of us wrestle with doubts about God’s love, approval and acceptance, myself included. Is it possible these doubts are created by our use of faulty weights and measures? For, if we use defective scales to weigh our worth or our success, then we set ourselves up for an inaccurate reading of our true value. If we believe that we do not “measure up,” this will be the way it will be measured back to us!
The way we measure ourselves can actually limit how much God can measure out to us. The issue is not with God and His desire to love us; it is with us. The way we measure our own value and worth determines our capacity to receive relationally from God – and others.
All of this aligns with Jesus’s teaching on sowing and reaping. Consider Luke 6:37-38 in the light of how you measure yourself. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
God’s heart for us is always generous. He is always kind and always good. He is always loving, and He wants to fill us with all of His fullness (Ephesians 3:19), which is an amazing thought! But if we want to have the capacity to receive all of this – in overflowing measure – we may need to recalibrate how and what we measure about ourselves. With the right measurements, there is abundance – pressed down, shaken together, and running over – and we can live long in the life the Lord our God has given us!
A Prayer
Lord God, You are the perfect Judge, and You do not weigh my worth as the world does. Thank You that because of Jesus, You do not count my sins or failings against me, and I am made acceptable to You. Help me to know and grasp Your great love for me so that I might be filled with all of Your fullness as You have promised. And help me to correctly measure only what is important to You.
In the Name of Jesus, Amen!
