How do you spell "SUCCESS" on the field?

For most any job, there are job performance reviews. At the beginning of this year, we evaluated individual successes and struggles in our positions on the field. As I was putting some of these issues into writing, my mind was flooded with memories of work I did many, many years ago in East Tennessee.

I can remember helping my family on our farm when I was a kid. There was planting…a tedious task that left me weary with only upturned dirt to show for the work. However, the most dreaded task was the weeding and watering….with even less evidence of the work done. It was a dirty job in the hot sun…AND…it had to be done over and over and over. Eventually the work paid off. We picked the fruits (or I should say ‘vegetables’) of our labor. Even the harvesting was wearisome (especially the itchy okra!) and when we got it home there was much work in preparing it before we could enjoy the goodness. But at the end of the season, we had a good mess of canned green beans, a thousand ears of sweet corn, lots of okra, and jars of tomatoes. The fruits of our labor were easily measured and visible, but not until the end…the very end.

How do you measure your performance if you are a missionary? Last night we heard of someone who suggested that financial support should only be sent to missionaries who could claim a certain number of baptisms per year. Is the number of baptisms a sign of being a successful missionary? Have we only done well IF there are a certain number of many baptisms? (I assume this person measured conversions by baptisms-an entirely different topic! ☺) I believe the answer to this question can be summed up with one small word-NO! Our job is to be obedient. The Lord will chose whom He will call to Himself and when He will do it.

Let me be perfectly clear, no greater joy could come to me to know that all my students will be in heaven for eternity. But, I may only be one individual in a chain of many people whom the Lord will use to accomplish that, if that is what He chooses. I could be the first person that shares the Gospel and plants a seed. Maybe I am in the middle-watering, nurturing the seed that was planted by someone years ago-answering questions, confirming emerging beliefs, or simply showing the love of Jesus to a seeking child. Or perhaps the Lord would allow me to be last in this chain that leads to eternal salvation. If so, it would be then that I could have the ultimate joy of experiencing the harvest of a soul. Or simply the Lord might use me to encourage the maturing believer through discipleship, teaching him to love Scripture, to persevere, to share his faith…to become a link in a new chain of believers.

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:3-6