Calculating Success
(Tasks x Relevance) / Time
This (language warning). Or as John Maxwell put it, “You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.” Also, Paul in Galatians 5:1-6. And John in John 3:27-30. Heck, this…
Which all leads me to the ratio: (Tasks x Relevance) / Time.
I remember learning fractions in elementary school, and the key with adding or subtracting fractions is you must have a common denominator. You could not add 1/2 + 3/15. You had to first find a common denominator - say 5/10 + 2/10 - then add. In this ratio, we recognize time is fixed…
Arnold Bennett says in his book “How To Live on 24 Hours a Day”:
Yet it has been said that time is money. That proverb understates the case. Time is a great deal more than money. If you have time you can obtain money—usually. But though you have the wealth of a cloak-room attendant at the Carlton Hotel, you cannot buy yourself a minute more time than I have, or the cat by the fire has…
[He goes on…] Philosophers have explained space. They have not explained time. It is the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible; without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. A highly singular commodity, showered upon you in a manner as singular as the commodity itself! For remark! No one can take it from you. It is unstealable. And no one receives either more or less than you receive.
So, when we attempt to calculate success, the temptation is to ask “How much did you do with the time that is given to you?” or "Tasks Completed/Time.” But that’s just productivity… and some of the most productive people on the planet are the most miserable, anxious, by most definitions that don’t use a dollar sign “unsuccessful” people. And let’s not forget, you can’t take the dollars with you. Someone else drives the car when you’re gone, someone else lives in the big house and works in the corner office. So, what is success if not productivity? I propose (Tasks x Relevance) / Time. How much time did you spend doing things that matter? And who gets to define what matters? From a tangible, secular perspective, Matthew McConaughey might. But even for Matt, someone else drives the car…
What did Jesus say? What matters? That was behind the Pharisees question in Matthew 22, a trap laid for him from the Old Testament experts. “You know, Jesus, there’s a lot of commandments. And we’re working really hard to keep them all, but you have been berating us for it… So, how about you tell us which one is the most important, the greatest commandment.” (my paraphrase)
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Turns out, success is simpler than the millions of books and podcasts and TED Talks and blogs [present company included] make it out to be. Love God completely. Love you neighbor as yourself. It may not be easy… but it is simple.
Jesus defines the neighbor in Luke 10, as a man, “desiring to justify himself” asks who his neighbor is. He tells the story of a man on the road, who is robbed, beaten and stripped, left for dead on the road. “Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite - the managers of the temple, a highly regarded tribe with immense spiritual responsibility - when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.” But a Samaritan - what we might call today “mixed race” or “multiethnic,” part Jew, part Gentile - had compassion on him, bandaged his wounds, transported him to an inn and left payment for his ongoing care. Jesus asks, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
In other places, Jesus defines loving one’s neighbor (and, in fact, enemies):
In Matthew 5, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
Give. “What if they slap me?” Let them. It may not be easy… but it is simple. “What if they take my [jacket]?” Give them your [shirt] too. “What if they force me to go [to Walmart] with them?” Go home to help them unload the car. Love God completely. Love you neighbor as yourself. It may not be easy… but it is simple. And in case there was any doubt about the division of loving God and loving one’s neighbor - “ugh, Jesus, not enough hours in the day to do both!”:
In Matthew 25 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
So, if Success = (Tasks x Relevance) / Time, then how much time have you spent today loving God, or loving God by loving others? It may not be easy… but it is simple. To quote the all-knowing, all-powerful, creator of the universe, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” *shrugging emoji*