Who Needs Success Anyways

I touched on this a few weeks ago, but wanted to go a touch deeper on the topic of “enduring pain and failure.”

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Are you willing to lose for the thing you’re trying to achieve?

To be punched in the face repeatedly?

To question everything?

To get within inches of victory only to watch someone else celebrate?

To accept the possibility that you may never accomplish the goals you set out to reach?

We often ask ourselves, Am I willing to work hard enough to win?

It’s a good question. But for most of us, it’s an easy one to answer.

A question that isn’t asked nearly enough is this:

Am I willing to keep becoming the kind of person who pursues this, even if I never win?

If the only acceptable ending is success, then success has become a condition of our faithfulness.

There is value in training and competing with the mindset of, I will not be denied victory. Every great competitor needs that fire.

But we constantly hear the stories of those who won. Far more rarely do we hear about the people who sacrificed everything, did almost everything right, and still came up short.

We romanticize sacrifice because we secretly believe sacrifice guarantees reward.

Life doesn’t work that way.

You can make every right decision, prepare relentlessly, and still lose.

The hardest bargain isn’t trading comfort for success. It’s trading comfort for possibility.

Don’t be afraid of humiliation.

Don’t fear rejection.

Don’t fear being called foolish.

Embrace the possibility of all three.

Live in such a way that you’re willing to be misunderstood by people who would never dare to walk the road you’ve been called to travel.

If you’re pursuing something that truly matters, there will be seasons where faithfulness looks like failure to everyone watching.

There will be moments when you’re laughed at by people who never risked anything themselves.

Let them laugh.

Better to be mocked for chasing a worthy calling than applauded for never leaving the bench.

But know, there is no contract that says if you endure enough pain, enough failure, or enough disappointment, then God, another person, or your career owes you the outcome you wanted.

The only guarantee is this:

If you refuse the cost, you’ll never discover what was possible.

Following Christ never came with the promise of earthly success, comfort, happiness, or recognition. In many ways, it promised the opposite. The invitation was never, “Follow Me, and you’ll win.” It was, “Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Follow Me.”

An athlete asks,

“Am I willing to lose games for the chance at greatness?”

A disciple asks,

“Am I willing to lose my life in order to find it?”

Different arenas. The same willingness.

To surrender the guarantee of the outcome in order to remain faithful to the calling.

Every meaningful pursuit eventually asks us the same question:

“If I told you there was a good chance you would fail… would you still choose this road?”

If your answer is yes, then perhaps what you’re chasing has become more than a goal.

It’s become a conviction.

So ask yourself:

Are you willing to be embarrassed?

To lose publicly?

To have your confidence shattered?

To doubt whether you’re good enough?

To watch someone else receive the thing you believed was meant for you?

To do everything right and still fail?

To spend years chasing something that may never arrive?

Because those questions reveal whether you’re chasing an outcome…or whether you’ve committed yourself to a calling.

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Additional reading:

• Luke 9:23

• Matthew 16:25

• Hebrews 12:1–3

• James 1:2–4

• 2 Timothy 4:7–8