The Golden Calf of Measurable Success | Jono Woodall
In business, self help books, or sometimes even in ministry we are told to set clear goals. The more specific the objective, the more easily we are able to measure our progress toward that goal. Decision making becomes formulaic, as the rules you operate on become more black and white, almost like a game where the win conditions are already defined. In a game, this process is what creates efficiency.
In a sport like basketball, the objective is clear: Whoever can score the most points wins. Every decision stems from this objective. As the game and technology has progressed, the more efficient the strategies have become. This is why millions and millions of dollars are spent every year on advanced analytics research, so that teams can determine what specific metrics inform the best strategies to score the most points. This is what ultimately led to the 3 point revolution that changed the way basketball was played. Not every shot made awards the same amount of points. The more difficult shots that are around 23 feet from the basket earn you 3 points while everything within that arc awards only 2 points. For decades, before analytics took over sports, teams primarily strategized around the easier 2 point shots because 3 pointers were considered too risky and volatile. According to Basketball Reference, in the 1999-2000 season, each team would shoot on average 13.7 3 point shots a game. Today in 2024, that average is up to 35 3 point shots a game. It was a simple math problem: a higher volume of 3 point attempts, even at lower percentage of completions, lead to more points than the same amount of 2 point attempts at a higher percentage of completion. This is what happens when your objective is clearly defined. It is certainly easier to find inefficiencies in your process. But what is the objective of life? And how do we know we are making progress?
The objective of life is this: it is to know, hear, and obey the will of the Father. This is true worship. Life is not a game. There is no formula to discern the voice of God. There is no math problem that makes hearing His word more black and white. It is only through the guidance of the spirit, through intimacy, that we can gain confidence in His voice. Oftentimes, in our lack of clarity, we look to the ways and patterns of this world to find comfort in our actions.
But objective metrics, like systems, rules, and protocol are what we rely on in the absence of benevolent leadership. For humans, they can guard against instability, so I don’t say that as if that makes them inherently bad. In our flawed state, we do not always hear correctly. But it is fundamentally more difficult to sit and hear the voice of the Shepherd than it is to say, “I am making progress because my actions fulfill my definition of success.” The world over relies on metrics because it is insecure about whether or not it is actually doing good. This mindset has infiltrated the ways of the body. Is our attendance increasing? How many baptisms have we had this month? Is our content getting enough engagement? How do we know our community is healthy? A good leader will know from experience. This is why the qualifications of an elder are directly correlated with how he leads his family. But when the leader lacks the experience or perspective of what a healthy family looks like, he will look to external measures of success. Numbers, titles, accomplishments, and accolades; It is like believing a steak is high quality because of the expensive price tag while not actually being able to taste the difference. Does it really matter if you can taste the difference, if at the end of the day, we’re all eating steak? This is like saying “I have done good works in your name, so why does it matter which good works I have done?”
There are many good works that could be done at any given moment. At every moment we experience opportunity cost. There is always homeless to feed and there is always scripture to read. There is always somewhere to be and there is always someone to please. Are these not good works? But the scripture does not say to live life doing anything that we can categorically describe as a “good work.” In fact, Ephesians 2:10 (ESV) says this,
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
In Luke 4, the Pharisees came to Jesus while he was in his hometown, inquiring of him to perform the same miracles that they had heard about him doing Capernaum. But Jesus was not present to perform every miracle or do all things that one might call good. He came to do His Father’s will, which is why he responds in Luke 4:25-30 (ESV):
“‘But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.’ When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away.”
It may upset the people around you that you aren’t living up to their definitions of success or progress. And while we should not insulate ourselves from wise counsel, it is important to seek first the counsel of the Lord. Because just as Jesus walked, we too are called to do the will of the Father. Jesus gives a stern warning to those who reject His Father’s will in Matthew 7, where he says in verse 21-23 (ESV):
“‘Not everyone who says to me, ”Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ”Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” And then will I declare to them, ”I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”’”
What’s important to note here is that Jesus is not juxtaposing following the will of the father with blatant or categorical acts of sin. Those who acted in the name of Jesus did things we generally see as good acts or even miracles: prophesying and casting out demons. He’s saying that categorically ”good actions” that are done outside of the will of the Father ultimately serve a false god.
To be clear, I am not encouraging you to be paralyzed by the lack of clarity you may have about what to do at a given moment. Who God speaks to, how He speaks to them, and what He says to do are all His prerogative. But wait on the Lord. Do not be impatient. For it was impatience that led Israel to worship the golden calf. For it is written in Exodus 32:1 (ESV),
“When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, ’Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’”
In our impatience and in our desire to lead ourselves, we look to visible, tangible, measurable, and touchable gods. Do not be deceived, for the results will look tempting. In fact, Israel deceived themselves by pointed to the real miracles of God when they said later on in verse 4,
“These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”
But they looked to a graven image and therefore their songs, feasts, and sacrifices were void and empty. Numbers, titles, achievements, accolades, and various metrics of success are cheap forms of validation that hold no weight in comparison to the Will of the Father. The point of me saying this is not for you to second guess every decision but rather to highlight the necessity of waiting on the Lord; to guard yourself from drowning out the will of The Father with your own or other’s definitions of success. We must guard ourselves from forfeiting our inheritance by being unwilling to hear the voice of the spirit that told Gideon to leave behind many capable men. By all observable metrics, that did not serve his tangible “end goal.” An enemy army awaited him, a real tangible problem. But our goal is different from the world. We listen and overflow with what we have heard and known to be true, knowing that Yah has gone before us and is already victorious.
As it is written in John 12:27-28 (ESV), “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they followed me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
~ Jono
