Achievement

Achievement - something accomplished, especially by superior ability, special effort, great courage, etc.; a great or heroic deed.

There are basically only two kinds of religion in the world: those based on human achievement and those based on divine accomplishment. One says you can earn your way to heaven; the other says you must trust in Jesus Christ alone.  John MacArthur

Have you ever looked back on your life and wondered what you achieved in your lifetime?  Have you thought about what you would like to achieve in the future.  I was thinking about jobs from my past and I thought about when I worked in retail.

 

I was fresh out of college and God was not a priority in my life.  In my mind I thought it was important to have a great title.  So I applied for two very different retail positions.  One position was for a Manager in a women’s suit department.  The other position was for a major department store who was hiring a Display Coordinator. I was not so impressed with the Display Coordinator position because I didn’t really like the title. On the other hand the other position “Manager” made a statement.  It said that I had arrived.  I was going to take on the retail industry with my new title.

I was a newbie in the business world.  I thought it was all about the title.  I naively thought that if I didn’t have a title then my having a degree wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.  So you guessed it, I took the Manager position.  It was not one of my better moments or decisions.  I lasted about a year.  I had no passion for the job. It was hard for me to justify trying to sell a $400 suit when I didn’t think it was worth $400.

 

The thing about the other job was that I had a passion for design and I loved creating retail displays.  I had extensive training in that when I was in college.  I was an expert at dressing a mannequin.  I knew how to take them apart and put them back together and they looked stylish when I was finished.  So the job I had the passion for, I passed up because of a title.

 

I am not saying that everything you have a passion for is the thing you should be doing.  The thing is, too many times we accept a position in life because of the prestige it will give us, not because it is what God would call us to do.  If our main focus is on the title or the money then we will probably not like the job.

Years have passed and I have since changed my view of life, work and God.  My achievements in my job don’t matter as much anymore.  I still enjoy work but it doesn’t define who I am.  I don’t really care what my title is and money is not my main motivator.  I now have a passion for God and people in that order.  It doesn’t matter what the job is there will always be people who need a Savior and I am passionate about that and the One who saved us.

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Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, thank you for helping me to see wisdom from my past.  I can look back on my life and see the mistakes I made but each one was a lesson leading me back to You. The achievements that are most important all deal with eternity.  If I am not trying to reach another person for You exactly where I am, then I am not using the skills and talents You gave me.  Help me to understand that it is not important to be first, it is important to be last and servant of all.  The world teaches us to strive to be more important than others when we should be just the opposite.  The ladder to success and achievement often leads to nowhere. 

Scripture: Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, “What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?” But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest. And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, “Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me.” Mark 9:33-37