Your Measure of Success
2 Corinthians 10:12 We don’t dare put ourselves in the same class with those who think they are so important. We don’t compare ourselves to them. They use themselves to measure themselves, and they judge themselves by what they themselves are. This shows that they know nothing.
That sense of self-importance that some people have is so… well… ugly, isn’t it? They act as though they’re always 100% right and everyone else just has to fall in line. And that, in turn, has the tendency to make us feel inadequate. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, right!?
I have to tell you, I’m no shrinking violet but over the years on many an occasion, the crass self-importance of others has caused me to question my own self-worth. It happens a lot less these days, but it still happens now and then. Fortunately, as the hairs on my head have greyed, I’ve learned that the strident opinions of others are not my measure of success. That’s a hard lesson to learn, but an important one. This is how the Apostle Paul put it:
2 Corinthians 10:12 We don’t dare put ourselves in the same class with those who think they are so important. We don’t compare ourselves to them. They use themselves to measure themselves, and they judge themselves by what they themselves are. This shows that they know nothing.
Measuring yourself by your own opinions, your own standards, is futile – and the louder they shout, the more opinionated they are, the more they force their views on you and me, the more they demonstrate that they know nothing.
The truth is that comparing yourself with them gives you completely the wrong measure of success. So, what’s the right measure then?
2 Corinthians 10:18 What people say about themselves means nothing. What counts is whether the Lord says they have done well.
The right measure of “success” (whatever that word means to you) isn’t what they say, it’s what God says. God calls us to be kind, to be humble, to be forgiving, to turn the other cheek, to go the extra mile, to…
What counts is whether the Lord says you’ve done well.
That’s His Word. Fresh… for you… today.
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