Whither Success?

This weekend we've got over 90 new students headed out to the beach for our annual New Student Retreat. To put that in perspective, last year we brought 38. So I'm scrambling to buy up more and more beach houses as the registrations roll in from all over campus--so far we've got 9 houses, chances are I'll have to add a tenth in the next day or two.

So is that success? I'd like to think it were that easy.

As I'm reading through Genesis, there's this great story of Abraham sending a servant to go and find a wife for his son Isaac from Abraham's homeland. The servant prays a very specific prayer to God that the woman that he should bring back for Isaac would do and say very specific things. He meets a woman who does exactly as he prayed, but the servant doesn't presume that his errand is successful too quickly. Instead, the story reads, "The man gazed at her in silence to learn whether or not the Lord had made his journey successful." (Gen. 24:21 NRSV).

So as I'm scrambling to find food and lodging for all these new students, I'm also trying to pause now and then to look over the list of names, to pray, to listen to the Lord's heart for these students. Listening, waiting, being silent: not exactly virtues that I tend to exude.

Several of them are international students, some are from out of state, others are North Carolina kids. Most are freshmen, some are sophomores just getting involved in IV, others are transfers.

God has brought people literally from around the world to come to be with him this weekend at the beach. My work is to build the most faithful greenhouse that I possibly can--space and time that is conducive for that meeting to occur. I have no control over whether or not it actually does. But it's faithfulness, not fruitfulness, that is the truest measure of success.