Discovering what God wants from me
by Justin McRoberts Dissatisfied With Success
Te longer I do work I care about, the less I find myself charmed or satisfied by the word (or the idea of) “success.” In part, I think that’s because I’ve failed enough to know what little difference success means for my motivation. At times, I’ve been more motivated aſter get-
heart and soul
ting up off the floor than I have while hoisting a metaphorical trophy. Tat’s not always the case, mind you. But I can say, without much qualification, that the satis- faction of
victories, even significant ones, carries less weight now than it did when I started. Mean- while, I find myself reveling in my comeback stories and passing those along far more readily. Deeper than that, I’m less satisfied with suc-
cess these days because I recognize that much of what it means to succeed has been decided by other people. In other words, someone achieved something (sales numbers, butts in seats, percentage increases, etc.) in a field of work like mine, and that achievement was galvanized as a culture-wide benchmark. While those standards or markers can be helpful, chasing them can mean trying to mold myself into someone else so I can work like they do and achieve what they did.
But I no longer think that’s what God wants.
That’s not why I was called to the work. God called me to this work for the same reason God called me to Himself to begin with — because God loves me. Tis has me thinking I can read my dissatis-
faction with external metrics for success as part of a Divine beckoning inward. Instead of being concerned with how my numbers and achieve- ments add up, what if the question of success means asking myself if I’m happier this year (or this month) than I was previously? Or asking if I feel more connected to my work partners. Or asking if the people who work with me are better at their jobs and happier doing them. Or maybe even asking if I can tell if I’m growing and learning, which is where I’d be willing to guess God finds His deepest joy in my work. I’d like to suggest that, in Christ, success
doesn’t mean achieving a particular standard set by human hands. Instead, success is a mov- ing target and has everything to do with what God is doing in me.
Justin McRoberts is an author, retreat leader and songwriter living in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife and two children.
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www.ccca.org November/December 2025
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