Success

I've beeen pondering the definition of success lately. There are all the typical answers, financial, being a good person, living life to the fullest. And while those are all valid answers, I find myself knowing there is so much more to the word. More than I could probably ever understand.

The other day I was driving around Cherry Creek with my niece. When we were stopped at a red light, I glanced to my right and saw a homeless girl sitting on a street corner. My heart broke for her. I wondered what her story was, I wondered where she'd come from and what events had occured in her life to get her to the place she was. A smile found it's way to my lips when I saw a gentelman come up and give her two bags of groceries. He then began talking to the woman. She looked to be no more than twenty five years old. In the world's eyes, she had nothing to call successful. But I realized that that simply wasn't the case. I may not know what the successes in her life might be, but by simply being alive, a human, she was a success. God didn't see her as less than, he loves her as much as he loves you and me. If that's not success, I'm not sure what is. And I realized that I find myself striving to be successful in ways that really don't matter, when I should just be enveloped in the realization that I am a success because I belong to Jesus Christ. There are things I want to do in my life, just like everyone else I'm sure. I want to succeed and do well at the goals i've set in front of me. But all of those are nothing if i'm not successful where it really matters. Again, I know i'm not the first person to have these thoughts, but if my life is only filled with myself it's not a success at all. I would rather put aside my goals and aspirations if that means I get to love on people and show them Christ with every moment I'm in existance. I want to strive to smile more, strike up conversation more, compliment more. I want to be one of those people who asks someone how they are and really get a true answer. I think that's what James 2:26 means, "Faith without deeds is dead." I would rather live a life of serving others than, having a life served to me. That's maybe the surface of what being a true success of a person is. I want to be one of those people who sees someone who might be entirely different than me, and talk to them. I want to live a life where I'm not afraid to love people. I am grateful for the fact that the majority of people are different than me. Each and every person we encounter is a different piece of our incredible God. Why would I want to do anything else but love them? By simply talking to someone, we get to know a new characteristic of our Savior. Success may be many different things, but I think the biggest definition of success, is love.