There’s always failure.

Abraham Lincoln failed in business three times and lost seven political races. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. Steven Spielberg dropped out of high school and was denied entrance to film school three times. Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times. Henry Ford failed in his first two business attempts.

Behind every story of fame, achievement or success is failure.

Albert Einstein didn’t talk until he was four, and his teachers called him “mentally slow”. Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for lacking ideas. John Grisham was rejected by sixteen agents and twelve publishing houses.

No matter how good, talented or gifted I am, I will fail.

How do I measure success?

I’ve been thinking about success and failure more this year than I have in a long time. My Word of the Year is BOLD, so I’ve been praying and dreaming big, bold things. Here are the highlights:

• Sell 1000 t-shirts.
• Speak 12 times (outside my own church).
• Take 200 people with me to Mexico.
• Double the size of our kids ministry.

Making these things public is even more scary. What if I fall short?

Better yet, what do I do when I fall short? As history shows, I will fail.

How do I measure success? I measure success by obedience.

This is the question I am responsible to answer:

Am I doing the thing God asked me to do?

Purpose is doing what I know to do today, knowing the future will take care of itself. Purpose is thinking about where my foot will land next – aware of my past and mindful of my future, but focusing on my now.

Ponder the path of your feet;

then all your ways will be sure.  -Proverbs 4:26

Are you a success?

It’s a loaded question, but the answer is simple.

You are successful when you do what you know you are supposed to do today.