Be Faithful
Success stories.
I read Forgive Everyone Everything recently, a most remarkable book. Written by Father Gregory Boyle, S.J., founder of Homeboy Industries located in a desperate gang infested part of Los Angeles, speaker and author of a number of books, including Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion, which was on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Boyle founded Homeboy Industries over thirty years ago and it is now the world’s largest gang-intervention and rehabilitation program.
The piece that follows was lifted directly from Forgive Everyone Everything. I picked this piece because Boyle identifies what keeps so many of us from getting our hands dirty—believing we need to be successful when what we are called to be is faithful.
My mentoring in and out of prison is not comparable in any way to Greg Boyle’s ministry. It’s that I wrestle with the tension between success and faithfulness all the time. I assume you encounter the same struggle and that this piece will bless you as it has blessed me.
FORGIVE EVERYONE EVERYTHING
page 72
Gregory Boyle, S. J.
People want me to tell them success stories. I understand this. They are the stories you want to tell, after all. So why does my scalp tighten whenever I am asked this? Surely, part of it comes from my being utterly convinced I’m a fraud.
I find Bill Cain’s reflection on the Shroud of Turin very consoling. He prefers frauds. He says, “If the shroud is a fraud, then it is this masterful work of art. If it’s the real thing, it’s just dirty laundry.”
Twenty years of this work has taught me that God has greater comfort with inverting categories than I do. What is success and what is failure? What is good and what is bad? Setback or progress? Great stock these days, especially in nonprofits (and who can blame them), is placed in evidenced-based outcomes. People, funders in particular, want to know if what you do “works.”
Are you, in the end, successful? Naturally, I find myself heartened by Mother Teresa’s take: “We are not called to be successful, but faithful.” This distinction is helpful for me as I barricade myself against the daily dread of setback. You need protection from the ebb and flow of three steps forward, five steps backward. You trip over disappointment and recalcitrance every day, and it all becomes a muddle. God intends it to be, I think. For once you choose to hang out with folks who carry more burden than they can bear, all bets seem to be off. Salivating for success keeps you from being faithful, keeps you from truly seeing whoever’s sitting in front of you. Emnbracing a strategy and an approach you can believe in is sometimes the best you can do on any given day. If you surrender your need for results and outcomes, success becomes God’s business. I find it hard enough to just be faithful.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6
Purchase Forgive Everyone Everything here.