When Success Isn’t the Same as Alignment
Let me say something that might feel uncomfortable: I built things that worked… before I ever stopped to ask if they were assigned. In Christian business circles, we talk about success like it’s obvious. Growth means God is blessing it. More clients means you’re in His will. Bigger platform? Clear favor. That’s the assumption, at least. But I’ve learned the hard way that visible progress is not always proof of alignment. The trap is subtle. It starts when results begin to speak louder than conviction. When momentum becomes the signal that you must be doing the right thing. When opportunity knocks and you answer quickly—because why would God send it if He didn’t want you to take it? And slowly, almost invisibly, what’s “working” starts to replace what was actually instructed. From the outside, everything can look fruitful. Inside, though? There’s a quiet tension. A sense that you’re carrying something you never consciously chose. Scripture draws a very different picture of success than modern culture does. Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.” Notice the order. Commitment comes first. Establishment comes after. Alignment isn’t a reaction to growth. It’s the foundation beneath it. But many of us reverse that order. We build first. We ask questions later. We accept what’s available instead of discerning what’s assigned. That’s not laziness. It’s not rebellion. Often, it’s ambition mixed with good intentions. Here’s where clarity really began to shift for me: I had to separate opportunity from calling. Opportunities are visible. Immediate. Accessible. Calling is directional. It is rooted in identity. It carries weight. Every open door is not a mandate. And when we confuse the two, we can experience growth in areas that were never meant to define us. That’s why success and tension can coexist. You can hit milestones and still feel unsettled. You can increase revenue and still sense you’re slightly off-center. You can be productive and yet feel spiritually scattered. That isn’t ingratitude. It’s often misalignment. Kingdom-centered success operates from a different framework. It doesn’t start by asking, “Is this working?” It asks, “Did God initiate this? Is He sustaining it? Does this reflect what He entrusted to me?” That shift changes everything. You stop chasing expansion for its own sake. You start protecting clarity. You begin evaluating decisions based on obedience rather than optics. And something surprising happens. Peace becomes a better metric than applause. Consistency matters more than visibility. Faithfulness feels weightier than scale. As founders, builders, leaders—we have to regularly examine a few things: Are we operating from identity, or from pressure? Are we striving to prove something, or stewarding something? Is our productivity aligned with purpose, or just fueled by momentum? Where do we feel friction internally, even if everything looks polished externally? These questions aren’t dramatic. They’re grounding. Because true success in the Kingdom isn’t determined by what we manage to accumulate. It’s determined by what we faithfully align. If God didn’t initiate it, sustaining it will eventually drain you. But when He is the source—there’s a steadiness to the work. A clarity that doesn’t depend on constant validation. That’s the reset many of us need. Not bigger goals. Not louder platforms. Just alignment restored to its rightful place—first. Everything else flows from there.
