Success-seeking or Holiness-hungering?

     Can I just add an addendum to my last entry?  I am that Samaritan women.  
     Yeah, sure, I have not been married and divorced 5 times (though the fact that my husband has stuck with selfish me all these years is nothing short of a miracle... or a testament to the grace of God!)  But I am that thirsty woman... always seeking after that which just eludes my grasp.  Too often looking for satisfaction and fulfillment in the things of this world that always over promise and under deliver.  Caring too much about the temporary rather than the eternal.
     Searching for success more often than hungering after holiness.
     Success-seeking always leaves gaping holes in our hearts.  Holiness-hungering always delivers Christ's righteousness and peace and hope.  Success-seeking leaves us thirsting for more; Holiness-hungering quenches with the joyful, life-giving and sustaining Living Water.
     "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in al your conduct, since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy." (I Peter 1:14-16)
     It's so easy to identify the myriad destructive and devastating ways folks attempt to assuage their thirst--all those harmful addictions, all those obvious sins that destroy lives.  But what about our thirsty desire to achieve and accomplish--when it becomes our god, our ultimate goal in life?  Our thinly veiled love of appreciation or applause or accolades?  For many of us, it's especially the battle waged with our pride and our desire to see our children succeed, get ahead, be elevated.  Mercy, what an inner war we wage when it comes to our love for our children and wanting life to be perfect for them!
     Success and accomplishments are good things.  I know God wants, indeed commands, us to do our very best at whatever our hand finds to do (Ecc.9:10).  He wants our work to be excellent, because He is excellent, and we are His testimony to a watching world.  One of my favorite verses in the Bible urges us, "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for me, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.  You are serving the Lord Christ." (Col.3:23-24)
     But that's just it--we (okay, I--me, myself, and I!) all too quickly miss the distinction between serving Christ and serving self.  When we cross the line into the pridefulness category, we get in trouble.  When we thirst after success and fame rather than seeking to do our best to HIS glory, we've gotten our goals... and our gods... confused.  HE is the One we are to seek.  HIS glory is our ultimate goal.  Making HIS Name great--by doing our best and doing it in His way--is our highest desire.
     Help us Lord to seek to do our very best at whatever you call us to do.  Help us to teach and pray for our children to give their most excellent effort, and keep doing it day after day, faithfully and wholeheartedly.  But save us from ourselves and our all-too-easy tendency to warp into that sinful pride and self-seeking mode.  Might we do our best, try our hardest,  pray our strongest... and with complete, childlike trust, leave all the results up to YOU. And Father, help us every day, every hour, every moment seek YOUR glory, YOUR greatness, YOUR magnification.
     "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." (Col.3:17)
     Thank You Lord Jesus.  For any gifts You have given, any blessings You have showered upon us, any wisdom You have bestowed, any hardships You have allowed, any successes or failures You have sovereignly ordained, we trust You and say, "Thank You."  To You, Lord, and to You alone, be all the glory forever and ever.