Success. If you've lived in America for more than five minutes (or even anywhere else), you will probably hear the word success everywhere. It's the kind of thing that gets brought up on an everyday basis. Success, success, success. 

But what is success? And more importantly: how do we know if we've attained it?

I think we have to watch out for a couple of very specific traps when it comes to success. The world likes to tell us that we've made it when we start to feel like we're rich or we've reached the top. (But what's the top?)

I think I've succeeded. 

Is success a metric? I would argue no. I thinks success stems from our attitude. The world would never call a stay-at-home mom successful, even if she raises all her kids to be amazing people and has a wonderful marriage and holds the fort down and is active in her church. But I'd say that's successful.

Success, in a definition, is looking at your life and saying, "God is pleased with how I have used this time he's given me."

Because we all have 24 hours in a day. Yes, we really are equal on that front, no matter what the internet tries to tell you. As Paul says, we've all been given the chance to build on the same foundation. Gold, silver, precious stones, wood, straw, and hay are our materials. Some of those will do better in the fire than others. But we're still building.

I think people who argue that "oh, I'm a parent. I don't have the same 24 hours as a single, NYC, invested businessman" are wrong. They do. They're just looking at success wrong. 

Is success a number on your bank account? Is it a certain number of things checked off on your to-do list in a day?

I go to an incredibly rigorous, difficult college. I know people fighting for A's in every class, people who graduate with perfect 4.0s and a smile on their faces. They've succeeded. And THAT IS TRUE. I wouldn't dare say I know someone else's circumstances well enough to say that anyone wasted their time doing that sort of thing.

What I do know is this: My success does not look like a 4.0 GPA. 

Success, for me, is getting up 15 minutes before work, brewing coffee, and stumbling over to help pay for my tuition after staying up til 1 working on a paper. Success is going to class and taking good notes, even when the chronic pain is at its worst. Success is putting 3 solid hours into studying, working as hard as I can on that, and then dancing about the C+ on the test. Because my struggles are different.

We do have the same 24 hours. But we all have different lives. And God has called us to different paths. If everyone is climbing the same mountain from different starting points, that's going to look different for everyone. That climb is not cut and dry. It's not identical.

The same 24 hours but different ways of filling them.

This I know: If you are following God, if you're being faithful where he's placed you?

You are successful.