What is Success?

This morning I was praying for several people that are going through tough times. I realized that I was running late for school and I started getting ready while continuing to pray. Then I looked in the mirror as I was putting on my mascara and realized that I was crying. (One thing you have to know about me is that I often cry when I pray. Prayer is a beautiful thing where all of my emotion can be released before the throne of grace because I know that God hears and He cares.)

Sometimes I get so involved in life and in my routine that the hurts, the burdens, the frustrations just get tucked away where I don’t see them. Kind of like applying mascara without first seeing the tears. I don’t want to miss the reality for the routine or choose the safer path to avoid the hard things.

And one of the hardest things about where I am at the moment in living in Hungary and learning a new language is that I am making more mistakes. The more you take a step forward and try, the more you make mistakes and fail. I’ve always been a perfectionist and honestly I’ve spent a good portion of my life avoiding situations where I did not think I would excel at doing what was expected. If you don’t try, you can’t fail. It was far safer to only try things that I had a good chance of succeeding in.

But one of my favorite quotes by CS Lewis reflects that God isn’t safe, but He is good. God asks us to do things that aren’t safe or comfortable or easy. We might not succeed in men’s eyes, but if we are obedient, then we succeed in God’s eyes. And that is the success that matters.