How Do You Define Success?
My family and I had just boarded our United Airlines flight to Honolulu, Hawaii, for a whole week of relaxing in the sun during Christmas vacation. As I settled into my seat, I grabbed the in-flight magazine from the pouch in front of me and began to flip through it.
One thing I like about in-flight magazines is that they’re always filled with clever executive toys, interesting products, and unique gadgets I love to look at but never intend to buy. I guess I could purchase the “Vet Approved Training Mat” that zaps twenty thousand volts through your dog if he steps out of the kitchen into the living room, but I don’t have a dog. Or I could buy the “Electric Nose Hair Trimmer,” but I use the little scissors on my red Swiss Army knife for personal nose grooming. There was also a wide assortment of environmental artwork, exercise machines, luggage bags, computer carrying cases, golf gadgets, and tape series on “Advanced Mega Memory,” “Learning Bulgarian Backwards,” and “The Secrets of Offshore Wealth Building.” Most of the stuff was nothing but a bunch of clever, expensive junk.
One advertisement that caught my eye, though, was a colorful layout of motivational “success” posters. I held the ad close to my face to get a better look. Glossy, large poster prints of quiet, moonlit sand dunes, deep blue-and-white churning waves, golden early morning sunrises, breaching whales, determined rock climbers, and daring snow skiers leaping off snow-covered cliffs were accented with bold motivational quotes surrounded by a thick black border.
ATTITUDE. CHALLENGE. RISK. GOALS. OPPORTUNITY. TEAMWORK. COMMITMENT. SUCCESS. Inspiring words we’d all like to live by covered each poster with a specific challenge to squeeze the most out of every difficulty, opportunity, or danger. Those beautiful pictures and awe-inspiring quotes made me feel strong, powerful, successful, and invincible. I wanted to walk straight up to the cockpit and order the captain, “Move aside, I’ll be flying today.” A slight nudge woke me out of my daydream, however, as my wife handed me Ellie, our eight-month-old daughter, and said, “Here. It’s your turn to change her.”
From dreams of success to stinky diapers. It’s amazing how quickly the realities of life can dampen our enthusiasm and motivation for success. You’ll probably never see any dirty diapers on a motivational poster, but neither will a motivational poster make you a success in life. True success in life is found in pursuing what really matters, and what really matters in life is an intimate relationship with God.
Graduating from high school is an important step toward success in life, but graduating with God is a giant step, a step that fewer and fewer students seem willing to take. After ten years of youth ministry, and attending more high school graduations than I can count, I’ve witnessed more students graduate from God instead of graduating with God. I can picture in my mind the names and faces of tons of teenagers who abandoned their relationship with God after high school to chase after the world’s distorted definition of success. It’s scary and sad. It has caused me to take a deeper look at my relationship with Christ and led me to write this book.
This book is intended to help you discover what true success is—from God’s perspective. It’s written to help you keep your love for God alive after high school. In it, you’ll find dozens of true stories about young people, friends of mine, who struggled and sought to live by God’s standards for success. This isn’t a book about going to college, how to pick a roommate, find a job, or balance your checkbook. There are dozens of books like that already. Though you’ll find a wide variety of topics and themes about life after high school in here, the primary purpose of this book is to encourage you, to deepen your roots in Christ, to show you the relevance of God’s Word in every circumstance, and to challenge you to take daily steps walking in God’s love and grace for you.
Throughout history, God’s people, in one generation after another, have encountered hardships, difficulties, and struggles, yet God’s Word and his promises remain unchanged. As you go through life after high school, my prayer is that you will experience the richness of God promised in Psalm 100:5: “For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” When you’re feeling hopeless, discouraged, and clueless about what to do with your life, I pray you’ll hang onto the hope found in Jeremiah 29:11: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”
God doesn’t promise you success like the world does, but then again, this world never keeps its promises. God always keeps his promises. If you desire to keep your friendship with Jesus alive and growing after high school, you’ve taken the first giant step to true success. And you didn’t even have to change any dirty diapers!
Each chapter in this book has three parts…
The Story starts with, well, a story.
The Secret shares an essential truth from God’s word.
The Step is your action step to apply God’s word to your life.
As you journey into the next few years of your life, I hope Whadd’ya Gonna Do not only helps you, but it reminds you of the essential truth that you don’t have to figure it out all on your own. God is with you, eager to guide you along the way. I’m sure plenty of people around you also want to see you have a successful, thriving life. Don’t go alone. Go with God. Go with others who live by His love and wisdom.
May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. Psalm 20:4
