What Success Looks Like

For the past 10 years, I have blogged about how we can approach human labor in the larger context of the biblical worldview. Yet, to the best of my recollection, I have never addressed the question of what success looks like when it comes to our state of mind at work.

I will do this today. 

However, as I do this, I am reminded of Viktor Frankl, the psychiatrist of Jewish descent who spent two-and-a-half years in four Nazi concentration camps, penning these words in his great book, Man's Search for Meaning: 

"Don't aim at success," advised Frankl, "the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself."

This is excellent advice. "Success" (like "happiness") is not the target. Rather, it is the by-product of surrender to a cause much greater than ourselves (the Kingdom of God), and to the most important Person in the universe. 

To see what success looks like, with respect to a biblical state of mind at work, click here. 

As with the list of "Juicy Questions" I provided last week, the list of mental attitudes I am sharing today is not intended for ingestion all at once. You'll choke on it. Focus on one state of mind per week, and it will  keep you occupied for nearly a year. 

Onward and upward.