When you read the letters to the churches, it is stacked with wisdom and truths. You can’t go two sentences without making at least three notes… but the Gospels are a bit different.
You get sucked into the story, into the emotions of the participants, and before you know it, you have read three or four chapters. But every now and again, the spirit nudges you, and a verse or paragraph jumps out at you.
John the Baptist had a job. To fulfill the prophecy spoken by Malachi and Isaiah. And he was pretty good at his job but better yet, he understood his purpose and calling. But then, his disciples noticed that someone else was gathering more crowds (completely missing the measuring standard for success) and it is at this point that John the Baptist teaches a business truth that puts Tony Robbins and Robert Kiyosaki to shame:
“… A person cannot receive even one thing unless God bestows it…”(John 3:27)
This had me thinking in circles for a day… The success of our businesses and endeavors have very little to do with us, although we have complete control over it’s destruction.
The bible says that works without faith is dead. We cannot ‘work’ ourselves into heaven. And in the same way, Faith without works is empty… we do not do good things to get to heaven, we do good things *because we are grateful* that we are re-united with our Father.
Bring that back to our Baptizer…
We work. We go to the office, the range, the farm every day, not because our success depends on it, but because we have a calling and a purpose. We do it because of Christ. And we do it because we want to do it, because we want to play our part. It is a joy, not a burden, no matter how tough it gets. No matter how many tears we cry. No matter what destruction is caused, like Paul says, we count it all joy!
Because the measure of our success is not how many staff we have, how many clients we have, or how much money is in the bank.
The measure of our success is if we are living our calling and purpose.
One hacker cleans out your bank account. One rat bites through a cable and burns down your business. One pipe bursts and floods your building… why on earth do we think any of this is forever?! What we have is not because we earned it, we have it because of grace. It is not even our job to take care of it. It is just our job to nourish it, grow it and use it.
Every tool, every resource, every opportunity was given by God to utilize to fulfill your purpose. Every person in your team was put in front of you to empower so that they can fulfill their purpose.
