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The Lone Prairie Blog

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What is success and what is failure?

Julie R. Neidlinger

wheat field
Image © Julie R. Neidlinger. All rights reserved.

What is success?


On July 14, 2007, I wrote a blog post about a topic that I have revisited many times over the years in different forms.


"What is success and failure in life? How do we know which is which?"


That question, asked softly by the narrator of the PBS documentary Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern, a film about a farmer who was forced to sell at an auction and leave farming, has stuck with me since I first watched the film. The narrator spoke these words as the aging farmer watched his chisel plow get hauled away by the winning bidder, his face full of pain.


We get a magazine in the mail. It's called "Successful Farming," and it's filled with articles on farms that have huge shops, big machinery, and modern methods. It's filled with a definition of success that clearly is based on accumulation, financial gains, and a "bigger and newer is better" mentality.


What is success and failure in life?


[…]


Earthly success rarely rewards the meek, the humble, the broken.


Consider that when I wrote that, the smartphone, in the form of an iPhone, had only been announced at the start of that year and was first introduced a few weeks earlier. The monster of social media and constant connectivity hadn’t really been unleashed on the world.


Today, thanks to those devices and constant comparative connectivity, the pressure and overt understanding of success is very clear, if not twisted.


I know what the Bible says about success—it is obedience to God, with an unwavering focus on Him. It means to be a good steward of what He’s given me, depending upon Him instead of my ability to use those gifts. It’s having an eternal view of everything.


I knew all of that back in 2007 when I wrote that post. But our culture has gone so much further the wrong way that what the Bible says about success is the barest whisper in a culture screaming otherwise.


Last year, I felt my creative goal was to create things that would encourage people and bring joy. That process brought me weariness and feelings of failure, but does that mean that what I did was actually a failure?


Like you, I’m always bombarded by the other definition of success, teetering and unsettled about whether my life’s work is a joke. Unmeasurable success doesn’t seem like success. I have to literally fight in my mind to lay claim to the thoughts of how God defines success when all around me and in the evidences I see it seems otherwise. As I read the Psalms, I second the plaintive cry of why the wicked and evil prosper and what in the world is God going to do about it.


If all else, I have to remind myself success isn’t a feeling and at least I have a roof over my head and am not starving.


What is failure?


Two days before my birthday in 2016, I started writing about failure.


I’m going to share that with you next week, in full, for paid readers who are either members here or on my Substack blog. Because it’s in the deep dive on failure that I grasped a better understanding of success.

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© 1998 - 2025 by Julie R. Neidlinger, Lone Prairie Creative LLC, DBA Lone Prairie Art Works. Powered and secured by Wix

I am not a licensed medical professional, or a financial or legal expert. The information provided is for general purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult with a qualified specialist for specific medical, financial, or legal concerns. 

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