JULY 3, 2026

    “Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invicible host against difficulties.” 

― Helen Keller

“Remember, results aren't the criteria for success — it's the effort made for achievement that is most important.” 
― John Wooden, Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success: Building Blocks for a Better Life

JOB 26-28

20Where then does wisdom come from?

Where does understanding dwell?

21It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing,

concealed even from the birds in the sky.

22Destruction^b and Death say,

“Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.”

23God understands the way to it

and he alone knows where it dwells,

24for he views the ends of the earth

and sees everything under the heavens.

25When he established the force of the wind

and measured out the waters,

26when he made a decree for the rain

and a path for the thunderstorm,

27then he looked at wisdom and appraised it;

he confirmed it and tested it.

28And he said to the human race,

“The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,

and to shun evil is understanding.”(26:20-28)

ACTS 11

15“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with^a water, but you will be baptized with^b the Holy Spirit.’ 17So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?”

18When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

JOURNAL 

Helen Keller's words have always fascinated me. How could someone who could neither see nor hear become such a powerful source of wisdom, hope, and encouragement? The more I think about it, the more I realize that her life exposes a flaw in the way I often think. I naturally define success by outcomes, comfort, accomplishment, and certainty about the future. Yet none of those things were available to her. She simply possessed today.

Maybe that is why Scripture repeatedly warns against placing too much confidence in tomorrow. I can make plans, and I should. Planning is wisdom. But trusting my plans more than I trust God is idolatry. I have absolutely no idea what tomorrow will bring. None of us do. The opportunities I expect may disappear overnight. The hardships I never imagined may suddenly arrive. The people I believe will always be here may not be. God alone sees the end from the beginning.

That is exactly what Job acknowledges. Wisdom is hidden from every living creature because only God sees the whole picture. Job never learned what was happening in the heavenly conversation between God and Satan while he was suffering. He simply kept returning to what he knew to be true about God. He knew God was still sovereign. He knew God was still worthy of reverence. He knew that fearing the Lord was wisdom, even when he could not understand the circumstances surrounding him.

Peter experienced something similar. His plans, assumptions, and traditions were all redirected by the Holy Spirit. He never woke up expecting Gentiles to receive the same gift God had given the Jews. Yet when God moved, Peter did not cling to yesterday's understanding. He surrendered to today's leading. "Who was I to think that I could stand in God's way?" Those words remind me that following God often means releasing my own expectations when His Spirit leads somewhere unexpected.

That is the life I want to live. I want to prepare wisely for tomorrow without becoming captive to tomorrow. I want to work diligently, make good decisions, steward my responsibilities, and pursue excellence, but then release the results into God's hands. My responsibility is not to control the future. My responsibility is to fully possess today.

If I begin today seeking God's Spirit, walking in His power, love, and discipline, then I leave room for Him to redirect my path whenever He chooses. Sometimes that redirection will feel like blessing. Sometimes it will feel like suffering. Sometimes it will make no sense at all. But my calling never changes. It is to obey today.

John Wooden was right that success is measured by the effort made toward achievement rather than the result itself. Scripture goes even further. Success is faithfulness. Success is receiving God's Spirit today and allowing Him to shape my thoughts, words, and actions regardless of what tomorrow holds.

Paul understood this when he accepted the thorn in his flesh. He stopped demanding a different tomorrow and embraced God's sufficient grace for today. His weakness became the place where God's strength was most visible.

I cannot possess tomorrow because it has not yet been given to me. I cannot relive yesterday because it is already gone. But today is in front of me. Today I can love. Today I can build. Today I can restore. Today I can teach, coach, encourage, solve problems, and serve. If tomorrow looks completely different than I imagined, then God will already be there waiting for me.

 Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 CORINTHIANS 12:7-10