How do you define success?

Most people would say something like dictionary.com:

Success- the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.

Our dear friend Mikele brought this question up to us last night at dinner. I think in total guidance from the Lord, she said- "I'm going to challenge you guys to figure out how you define success. Because what the world says is success isn't necessarily what God is telling you it is. How will you let Him define success for you in Thailand?"

So, what is success? Is it having tons of amazing stories of all these people getting their lives changed once Jen and I set foot on Thai soil? Is it meeting a stranger on the streets and converting his whole family? Is it finding a child in prostitution and rescuing them?

These are great things . . . but what if they don't come? What if we never see fruit from our ministry? What if our experience is like a man I know of that spent 40 years in a foreign land before his first convert?

Does that mean that we weren't successful? That our time was a waste? That the prayers of all our friends and families were wasted? Was God wrong in sending us to Thailand?

These types of questions we need to get prepared for now . . . we need to anticipate the enemy trying to get in our heads and make us feel like "failures" if the most exciting thing we did all week was purchase a mattress.

Success is SO much more than outward appearances. It's so much MORE than what the world chases after! Success is . . . well its . . . success is . . .

I personally define success as Being Obedient. Whatever that leads you to and whatever it Doesn't lead you to- I think to be successful (in the spiritual sense) means to hear God and then be Obedient to what you heard. The rest is just details . . . and God takes care of those!