I was in a music fraternity in college. As I was working towards membership, I would regularly be asked questions about all kinds of things. I was expected to know the answers, but if I didn’t, I was expected to say, “RNE”—results, not excuses.
I’ve always fancied myself a results guy. When I set my mind to achieving something, I expect to achieve it. Maybe it will take longer than I’d planned. Maybe it won’t turn out exactly to the standards I’d set. But I would follow through and accomplish the task, big or small. Maybe it’s ambition. Maybe it’s skill. Maybe it’s the stubborn pride that refuses to fail.
But what happens when we bring this “RNE” determination and mindset into the Christian life? It’s one thing to get results in the business world or with a house project. But what about when we craft a results-driven faith?
To be sure, the Bible speaks of fruitfulness. We are expected to bear fruit for God…fruit of righteousness, fruit of the Spirit, fruit of salvation. We can anticipate our saltiness and brightness will bring forth praise from others as they see us and give glory to God. So we don’t pretend that results/fruit don’t matter.
But time and time again, I am realizing that results are not a good anchor for joy in Christ. Spiritual results are above my pay grade. They’re out of my control. Their timeline isn’t something I can place on a calendar. Spiritual results often don’t follow a set schedule. They don’t come in predictable fashion. Sometimes long and painful efforts produce nothing only to see someone else swoop in and produce results in their first opportunity. Sometimes results simply never come.
If I set my hopes too squarely on results, I run a great risk of being disappointed and discouraged. After all, I can water or sow seeds, but God alone gives the growth. God is sovereign over the kind of heart-soil that exists in evangelism. God is the one who alone can transform hearts by His Spirit, and He often has good work to do in not producing the results we long for.
Again, we don’t want to therefore say that results don’t matter. The Beatitude life hungers and thirsts for righteousness, strives to be a peacemaker, laments all that is wrong and broken and begs God to bring His Kingdom to bear in the evil and dark world even as He is already doing as much in the recesses of our own hearts.
But I am convinced that each of us needs to look long and hard in the mirror and wrestle with the question, “Is faithfulness to Jesus enough for me? Will I be content being faithful regardless of what the results are? Is Jesus worth all the effort I can muster even if the results, the hopes and dreams of my most God-honoring prayers, never come?”
I think this is in the arena of the contentment Paul speaks of in Philippians 4, which culminates in the famous verse that we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength. Paul knows plenty and loss. He knows humiliation and exaltation. He knows hunger and fullness. He knows danger and security. And he says he’s content…even as he writes the Philippian church from jail. Of course, he is speaking of “being in need” in Phil. 4, so I don’t want to ignore or misapply the context.
But think for a moment about the situations that brought Paul into such lack of resources. Why did Paul know humiliation? Why did he know hunger and lack of resources? Because he was being faithful to Jesus to take the gospel to the Gentiles. If Paul were anchored to results, would he have learned contentment? Often, the results from Paul’s faithfulness didn’t measure up to the hype of his apostleship. Take a look at his suffering list from 2 Corinthians 10-12.
Paul learned contentment because he wasn’t fixated on results. Did he pray for and strive after and hunger for spiritual fruit? Of course! But he had a stronger anchor. He was willing to count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. He wanted to know Christ at all costs even striving to know Him through the fellowship of suffering.
As I wrap up, there is admittedly a tension I feel in writing these things. I don’t want it to sound like results don’t matter. Paul says that he wants the result of attaining the resurrection from the dead no matter what he has to do. He pours himself out as a drink offering so that believers in Philippi would be strengthened in their faith and bear much fruit for Jesus.
But I am convinced that Paul is able to labor so strenuously because he’s loosened his grip on the results. He’s not dismayed when a close ministry partner turns into a monster and leads people away from the faith. He’s not perplexed when drifting on a plank of wood at sea for hours on end. He’s carrying out the mission of Jesus. He’s made up his mind that he will finish his work no matter what may result from his ministry efforts. And that is the secret of joy-filled contentment.
We learn contentment by making faithfulness our anchor point. Maybe God will multiply our faithfulness 100 fold. Maybe He won’t. Either way, it is always right and always productive to be faithful to King Jesus. Even if in the process of faithfulness, our very life is extinguished, we win.
So if you’re discouraged, burned out, confused by seemingly empty hands in the fruit department, check your anchor point. What have you secured your anchor to? Maybe it needs to be lifted off of the shore of results and dropped onto the firmer ground of faithfulness.
Comments
Post a Comment