I’ve been watching the Sochi Winter Olympics these days. I love watching it because you never see such pure display of emotions as in these games. You see them jumping in jubilation, flapping their arms like a mad man, screaming like there’s no tomorrow, and sliding on their knees while fist pumping… That’s the moment in which all the years of hard work culminated. You can’t help but envy them for that moment….

However, our earthly success and failure are far less dependent on us as they are on God. Don’t believe for a moment when you watch any sporting event that it was their hard work that got them there. “Yeah, but they really trained hard to get to where they are!” But what motivated them to train hard in the first place? When you were little, what motivated you to excel at certain things? I bet you were good at it. At least better at it than the people around you. So, you got praised for it (“wow, you can run so fast!” “You are so strong!”) And that motivated you to get better at it. What made you work hard was people’s praise which came because you had innate talent. But who gave you that innate talent? God.

What matters is not how successful or how talented we are. They came from God and God can make anyone successful for His purpose. (Have you ever considered maybe God raised up Mark Zuckerberg to create Facebook so that Christians can use it as a tool to help one another’s faith?)

What matters is faithfulness. It is hard to be faithful in things we are not natural at. Things we don’t get praised for. But in the end, what will show our heart for God is being faithful especially in things that we don’t have the natural inclination for.

How have we treated the people that cannot help us advance?
How patient are we with people who disappoint us again and again?
How faithful have we been at jobs that have no advancement implications?

God doesn’t look at big things. (The world does) He looks at little things.

What matters is not your success. What matters is your faithfulness.

And after you have been faithful and finally enter into heaven, there will be more than just sliding on ice and pumping fists! It will be happiness none of us has ever imagined.

PH