真正的成功True Success
作者: Burk Parsons 譯者: Maria Marta
好極了。幹得不錯。棒極了。作為孩子，我們都喜歡聽到父母、祖父母、老師，和教練的鼓勵說話。當我做好一件工作，我都极想念父親稱讚的微笑和母親深情的擁抱。說實話，雖然我們已是成人，但仍然希望聽到別人說我們做得很好。當我們取得成功之時，我們都喜歡受到鼓勵。
上帝賜給我們要成功的天生欲望。我們希望成為成功的男人、女人、父母、祖父母、雇員、學生和基督徒。我們希望成功，不僅僅因為成功的感覺良好，更因為我們知道成功是件好事。為了我們自己的安全保障，我們希望成功，成功了就能為自己和家庭提供保障。我們希望我們的生活發揮影響力，我們希望我們的工作起到重要的作用。我們希望受讚賞、受尊重和被愛護。我們不希望盡了全力卻換來失敗，我們不希望在一切錯誤的事情上取得成功。我們希望做正確的事情，為了我們的生活，要區別真正重要的事情。
一些人說，成功的欲望在本質上是邪惡的。另一些人則相信地上的成功是至關重要的。這兩種觀點都是錯誤的。上帝賜給我們成功的渴望，透過追求聖經所定義的成功，我們歸榮耀給我們的造物主。然而，聖經所定義的成功看起來並非總像世上的成功。上帝吩咐我們要忠心，因為忠心就是真正的成功。忠心總是指上帝眼中的豐碩果子和成功。忠心決非指人眼中的成功。當我們為著上帝的榮耀，每日依靠聖靈，使我們的道路順利，一路亨通之時，上帝吩咐我們要忠心（書一8；詩一一八25）。當我們等候耶穌基督-------我們真正的盼望和最終的成功------再回來之時，願我們能盡心竭力，永遠忠心，以便我們能聽到我們的主說：「又良善又忠心的僕人哪，你作得好！」（太廿五23a）。
本文原刊於Tabletalk雜誌2017年一月號 。
True
Success
by
Burk Parsons
Well
done. Great job. Good work. As children, we loved to hear words of
encouragement from our fathers, mothers, grandparents, teachers, and coaches. I
fondly remember my father’s approving smile and my mother’s loving embrace when
I did a good job. Truth be told, as adults we still want to be told we’ve done
well. We love to be encouraged when we’ve been successful.
God
has given us an inherent desire to be successful. We want to be successful men,
women, parents, grandparents, employees, students, and Christians. We want to
succeed not only because it feels good to succeed, but because we know it is
good to succeed. We want to succeed for our own security and so we can provide
for ourselves and our families. We want our lives to matter, and we want our
work to matter. We want to be appreciated, respected, and loved. We do not want
to do our best and fail, and we do not want to succeed at all the wrong things.
We want to do the right things and for our lives to make a difference where it
really counts.
Some
say the desire for success is inherently evil. Others believe earthly success
is all that matters. Both are wrong. God gave us the desire for success, and by
striving for biblically defined success, we bring glory to our Creator.
However, biblically defined success doesn’t always look like success to the
world. God calls us to be faithful, for that is true success. Faithfulness
always means fruitfulness and success in the eyes of God. It does not always
mean success in the eyes of men. God calls us to be faithful as we daily depend
upon the Holy Spirit to make our way prosperous and to have good success for
His glory, not our own (Josh. 1:8; Ps. 118:25). And as we await the return of
Jesus Christ, who is our only hope for true and ultimate success, may we strive
to be always faithful so that we would hear our Savior say, “Well done, good
and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:23a).