Does success seem out of reach? A bit like trying to hold Jello in your clenched fist? Is your coaching business sinking in the sand?

I know the feeling.

What Is Success?

Typically, I like to define success as starting at the bottom and moving to the top. Going from weakness to strength, anonymity to popularity, poverty to wealth.

After all, if God is for me, what can be against me?

Well… funny that you should ask.

Do you remember this true account?

God’s unlikely leader watched as his 32,000 battle-ready warriors camped outside of Midian. These brave men could wield strong swords, raid enemy camps, fight long nights and still live to tell heroic tales. Any commander would be proud to have this elite fighting force close at hand. No one could stand in their way.

But Gideon’s stomach was in knots and rightly so. The Commander in Chief’s orders echoed in his shell-shocked head. “Send 22,000 of them home!” “Now watch those who lap the water like a dog and send them home as well.” “Send only the remaining 300 into battle. Oh and by the way, don’t bring swords but instead attack with only jars and lanterns in your hands.”

God’s Definition of Success

What was God thinking? If this was the road to victory, Gideon wasn’t sure he wanted to walk it.

If you recognize that famous war story from the book of Judges, you know it has a happy ending. Gideon actually followed God’s strange battle plan, and God won the day.

God’s battle plans have always mystified me. March around a city seven times, blow trumpets, shout and the walls will come tumbling down.

Take stones from the river and ask the giant to stand still while you take a few pot shots at his head.

Build an ark in a land that has never seen rain, fill it with two of every kind and you will be saved from the flood.  I can just hear Noah now, “Sure, Lord. I’m happy to do whatever you say. By the way, what’s a flood?”

God’s battle plans are never quite like mine.

Business Failure

His business plans aren’t either.

This has been a tough week for my coaching business. In faith, following what I thought was the leading of God I chose a certain path. Two days later success was snatched out of my grasping hands.  Suddenly I was traveling backwards, moving from high to low, good to bad, popularity to obscurity, peace to turmoil fearing that the ink on the balance sheet would go from black to red.

First instincts cried out, “Where are you, God? I was following You.”

God’s Upside-Down Business Plans

But then I stepped back in time, put myself in Gideon’s well-worn sandals, sat in Noah’s boat and stood by David looking up at the giant, eye to knee.

This must be how it felt in the middle of their stories. Discouraged. Lost. Overwhelmed. Uncertain. Confused. Doubting God.

That’s always how it feels stuck in the middle, but we know the end. Against all human odds, each and every one of those heroes of old triumphed and came out on top.

Believe it or not, this is how God loves to work. Raise the stakes, maximize the risk, eliminate any possibility of human success and then move in and do miraculous things.

Today you and I are in the middle of our business stories.  We may feel discouraged, lost, overwhelmed and confused, but we are not at the end.

In the meantime, what should we do while God’s unique business plan unfolds before our very eyes? With His strength, we should bravely soldier on doing everything we know to do and fight for the faith to know that at the end of the day, the battle and the victory are His.

How do you hold onto faith when things don’t go well?  I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.