Success

I totally agree with everything Jonathan said in the post down there. I think the potluck was really great. I think it was a success. I think God is starting something big. But there's something I can't really figure out.

Would the event have been just as successful if less people showed up?

What if we did the event the exact same way-- just as much (or as little?) planning, just the same advertising and praying, and everything else. If everything else went the exact same way but less people-- 40, or 20, or even 10? if only a couple people came, would we have felt really good about how everything went? Would we be motivated to keep doing things like this?

I look at people like Moses or John the Baptist-- people that never saw the fruit of their ministries, that put everything on the line for something they hoped for but couldn't be realllly sure of, you know? They continuted to be faithful and take risks, and never lived to see the promised land, or never saw Jesus crucified and resurrected.

So I'm trying to figure out how that worked, like how they could keep going without God providing some amazing potluck with a bunch of people and food and everything running smoothly. Cuz if this potluck didn't go as planned, if, say, 10 people showed up, I think I would get discouraged. I was already getting discouraged when people told me before the potluck that no one would come. I think my goals and the things I wanted to see God do would get pushed aside, and I would just begin to settle with whatever. 

Now I'm starting to think that Moses and John had a really different idea of what success is. Maybe for them, success wasn't in a good turn out or in everyone telling them what a great job they did. Instead, God was in charge of making things successful, and all they had to do was simply be obedient.

Since we had a big turnout for the potluck, we kind of got off easy. Like it's easy to go from here and wanna be faithful and ask God for more things. But it would've been a lot harder if nobody came. Or if only 10 people came. It would be hard to imagine success the way Moses and John did, and it would be hard to still want to be obedient when the fruit isn't right there for us. 2 Corinthians 4 comes to mind: "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

I'm still trying to figure out what to make of the potluck, and what made it so great, and if it still would have been great if anything was different. So PLEASE comment! Success? Failure? Could it ever be a failure? Anyone can comment--you don't even need an account. But I really would love to hear what you think.