Measuring up was a theme in my devotional reading this morning... How do we measure success in our lives? It would seem that for many (if not most) the criteria for successful living would fall back to what has been implanted within them by life experiences. Some have had very positive experiences... but those positive experiences do not seem to be the instruments used by many folks to measure their lives. In fact, I believe, the negative experiences of life tend to be the tool used by individuals to judge how successful their life has been... and the tool used to set much of life's goals.
Many of life's negative experiences tend to be the minimum factors that we strive to overcome in our lifetime. The negative becomes the catalyst in our lives to do better... and I suppose that is very natural (and good). But I'm feeling some uneasiness within me as I consider all this based upon some of the lives I've had the privilege to interact with over the years.
It seems to me we spend a lot of time striving NOT to become someone (or something) we've experienced in the past. By doing this do we have an accurate picture of what we're striving TO BE? I also wonder if by default we tend to judge others by those same negative experiences in our own lives... and is that fair to them?
Jesus teaches us not to judge or condemn, but to forgive (Luke 6:37). I'm guessing this is necessary because we are not very accurate judges of our own lives, much less the lives of others. And in my limited experience it is through the forgiveness of the past that sets us on a new course of success in life.
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