This has been a topic of conversation on the ACFW loop today, and it’s sort of got me thinking. What exactly is success?
When you tell somebody you’re a writer, the first thing they want to know is what you’ve published. Well, if your answer is “nothing” (or, like me, “nothing since a magazine article 15 years ago”) then people sort of give you this look that says, “Poor, deluded thing.” Why is that? Because published is the first rung on the ladder of success. Top of the success heap? Multiple best sellers.
But here’s the thing… before God ever let me write the first word, He took me through a learning time, and one of the things He had me learn was what success looks like. Success is not having a million best-selling novels. It’s not having one best-seller. It’s not even getting published. Success is doing exactly what God wants and taking it (or following it) exactly where He wants it to go. I could write a book that sells gajillions of copies and is still talked about five hundred years from now. I could write a book that is only read by my closest circle of friends. As long as it’s what God wants, then it’s success. That’s a tough lesson to learn, because what I want is to be published and to sell books.
I wish I had that thought all of the time, that I could hold on to that and be happy with God’s will every second of my life, but the fact is that I can get an attitude about that. May God tattoo it on my heart: success is doing His will.
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