Defining Success
It is 7:45am. At 9pm, what would constitute today having been a successful day?
Generally it is my un-stated view that things such as these would be the sorts of things I'd want to aim for:
It is now 9:50pm (not sure that makes any difference, but there you go - I had to save this thought to finish off later, due to the delights of 4hrs considering Christian Eschatology, and various other aspects of term-time).
Is it not the case that a successful day is one spent:
And, of course, Gospel-driven success lists are full of grace and mercy (see here).
As well as doing this ourselves, I guess we can encourage each other by longing for these latter types of success first and foremost - asking those questions and celebrating those 'yes' answers rather than just doing our slightly Christian version of everything the world runs after - running after Christian things in a worldy way, as it were...
But this bites in another way, I think. We need to make sure the urgent doesn't get in the way of the important. That means we need to plan, need to deliberately not do certain things, and certainly need a concept of our 'top ten' priorities against which to measure / consider our diaries. I've tried working up such a list, which is hard. But I'm trying not to use my business as an excuse not do do such hard work because I am convinced that I need to do it - if you see vaguely what I mean!
Generally it is my un-stated view that things such as these would be the sorts of things I'd want to aim for:
- getting somewhere through my to-do list
- having had a quiet time
- having done some decent work
- not having been too rude / unsympathetic / n-Xn to anyone
- having had a good blend of work & relaxation
- etc, etc...
It is now 9:50pm (not sure that makes any difference, but there you go - I had to save this thought to finish off later, due to the delights of 4hrs considering Christian Eschatology, and various other aspects of term-time).
Is it not the case that a successful day is one spent:
- loving Jesus, in conscious communion with him
- focussing on heaven/Glory
- fighting the fight of faith
- contending for God's glory
- obeying God's purposes
- learning useful stuff
- putting into practice what I've learnt, or at least beginning to
- etc, etc...
And, of course, Gospel-driven success lists are full of grace and mercy (see here).
As well as doing this ourselves, I guess we can encourage each other by longing for these latter types of success first and foremost - asking those questions and celebrating those 'yes' answers rather than just doing our slightly Christian version of everything the world runs after - running after Christian things in a worldy way, as it were...
But this bites in another way, I think. We need to make sure the urgent doesn't get in the way of the important. That means we need to plan, need to deliberately not do certain things, and certainly need a concept of our 'top ten' priorities against which to measure / consider our diaries. I've tried working up such a list, which is hard. But I'm trying not to use my business as an excuse not do do such hard work because I am convinced that I need to do it - if you see vaguely what I mean!
posted by Andrew at 7:50 am
5 Comments:
so just where are you placed this year then? a bit of a come down from last year I guess?
Might list A not provide certain important concrete applications of list B? The problem being when we think of list A abstracted from Christ?
Agree - meant to say something like that, but forgot... I wasn't aiming to reject List A.
I think the issue is where things come and in what order. As soon as you're saying list A is fine not abstracted from Christ, how close are you to putting list B first anyway?
Absolutely. But I do need the specifics of list A in order to give shape to list B.
OK...
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