True Success

Four days of searching, four different stores, long trips across town, a budget that couldn't be satisfied, countless phone calls, and one giant headache later...I finally found and purchased the load of school supplies for the students in our young scholars' program. But that was last year, which is why when my teammate asked me to purchase school supplies again this year, I took it on like a challenge. 

This year, I knew exactly where to go. I knew it would take several hours to fill my order, so I dropped off my list and left my number instead of waiting outside in the hot sun for hours like last year. When it was all finished, some strong men loaded the seven heavy boxes packed with notebooks and various school supplies in the back of my truck, and I drove off with a smile on my face like I had just pressed the easy button. 

"Success!" I announced to myself, and I showed off my shopping spree accomplishment to my friend who took this picture and probably had no idea why I was so excited about it. 

But that's not really true success, because the young scholars' program is not about the boxes, backpacks, notebooks, and pencils. It's about the individual children who are in the program who are all either orphans, abandonned, or young girls at risk who wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to go to school. Each one of these kids, though younger than me, have seen and experienced more suffering and heartache in their lives than I can understand. But then the young scholars' program takes notice of them when they might feel unnoticed. We support them when they might feel like they have no one to support them. Valerie, the coordinator of the program, loves them like a mother when they might not receive that kind of love from anyone in their family. They receive the chance to go to school and dream about the future when they haven't previously had that freedom. Some of them have never even thought about what they want to be when they grow up...until now. Now they can dream and chase those dreams. 

Valerie, coordinator of the young scholars program 

This year we have fifty students in the program: 15 elementary students, 22 high schoolers, 5 university level, and 8 in professional schools for job-specific training (such as plumbing school, sewing school, carpentry, etc.) 

"Success!" you might say. 

But even that is not true success.

And that's what I had the opportunity to share with the young scholars at the first meeting of the school year this past Saturday. They will meet every Saturday throughout this entire school year to study the Bible together - a mix of Muslims, Christians, and those who sit on the fence or haven't yet made up their minds. 

I shared with them the same thing my father shared with me. He is a man that I would consider to be very successful in his career, family, leadership, and all aspects of his life. And he is the one who pointed me to the key to success, and it's found in Joshua 1:7-8.

At the beginning of a new school year, in a room full of young students seeking true success, I read to them the secret to true, real, lasting success. 

"Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall mediate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will have success."

True success is actually not working hard, getting good grades, being in the top percent of your class, landing your dream job, climbing the professional ladder, and then being respected by all your colleagues. (Although that's what you would think by looking at our culture, our pursuits, and the way we spend our time.) True success is loving God and his word. And that kind of love brings faithful obedience and real, lasting - no, everlasting - success. 

The same thing that is true for these students is true for me, for us. True success is not how fast and easy I find the school supplies; it's not how many students are in the program; it's not how hard I work or how much I accomplish. True success is loving God and his word, spending time in his presence, seeking him, and worshipping him. When people look at our schedules, our pursuits, our lives, and the way we spend our time, do they see evidence of this? 

Because this is an eternal truth that deserves our attention and needs to rock our world. It needs to change our lives. May we be a people that seek true success with all our hearts. May we seek God with all our hearts.

When the world looks on us and our unusually simple lives not distracted by the pursuits of the world (work, money, accomplishment, reputation, advancement) but completely content and joyful in knowing God and seeking him, I hope they notice. I hope they see that we have a satisfaction that the world cannot offer, and I pray it prompts them to join us in our pursuit of relationship with Jesus Christ. 

Now that's true success.