success

I read this post here and thought this:

Hmmm..success really is defined with big numbers and big crowds and big cash flow and big publicity. But my personal collection of heroes weren't so much on the "big". I just ordered "The Small Woman" about Gladys Aylward. But we first heard her story here. She intrigues me because what I've read and heard of her puts her into the "unusual" category. Some call it strange. But Gladys knew God wanted her in China. Nobody else would back her up. She saved her money working as a maid, bought a ticket (it was cheaper than ship travel) for a train trip across Russia and then China wearing two left shoes (they were cheaper). And to her list of credits, she safely transported over 100 children by foot over 30 days. Elisabeth Elliot names Gladys as one of the 10 most influential women in her life. 

And speaking of Elisabeth Elliot, while she is rather famous for what her first husband and her did with a group of fellow Christians to reach a hostile Ecuadorian tribe, has not written or spoken much at all that is popular. She and Jim Elliot knew each other five years before they married, waiting to be sure they were where God wanted them. They were only married for 2-1/2 years before he was murdered. Then she went back to the Waorani who killed her husband brutishly, with her small daughter no less, to continue to shine Jesus in that place. She talks about waiting and obedience and taking one step at a time. The groupies aren't lining up eager for those lessons.

Corrie Ten Boom was quite middle-aged when she made her mark on history. Middle-agers are typically into comfortable elastic-waisted pants and an easy chair. Corrie and her middle-aged sister and their elderly father used their watch shop to shelter Jews in Amsterdam while Hitler was on his rampage. Corrie not only lost her sister and father to concentration camps, she eventually had to look one of the guards who was responsible perhaps for her sisters death, in the eye, reach out her hand and forgive.

We remember big events with big numbers because they are big talking points. But success is defined in God's economy much differently and we just forget that. We forget that every day Corrie was risking her very life by choosing to open her door. And Gladys. She not only had to keep one foot in front of another despite hunger and thirst, but imagine directing 200 little people feet in the same direction over a period of over 30 days. And how Elisabeth put the terror of having her husband murdered aside is more than I could envision.

And then just yesterday I read this from Paul:

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,  so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”  (I Corinthians 1:26-31)

I really doubt whether Elisabeth or Gladys or Corrie kept going because they were mindful of the media blitz they could create. These ladies became famous for doing the very difficult even though it perhaps seemed rather ordinary at the time:opening the door, getting back on the airplane, walking one more mile. That gives me hope. Not because I wish for camera time or front page status, but because doing the ordinary and thankless and that which is sometimes drudgery is how success is defined with God.

And then there is Amy Carmichael, who spent the majority of her life ill in bed (if that isn't drudgery) said this in her little book "If":

"If I am content to heal a hurt slightly, saying "Peace, peace," where there is no peace; if I forget the poignant word "Let love be without dissimulation" and blunt the edge of truth, speaking not right things but smooth things, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I wonder why something trying is allowed, and press for prayer that it may be removed; if I cannot be trusted with any disappointment, and cannot go on in peace under any mystery, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

Oh this is a good thing that I don't have to have perfect hair or organizational skills. So God can use me if I'm not a snappy speaker or blogger. Even if I don't have award-winning photography skills and amazing credentials, I think I can have a place.