About a month ago on Sunday morning, I posed a difficult question to the congregation at our church. It is a rather simple question, the difficulty comes in that this question shapes how we spend our time and what we pursue in life. The question was, “What is success?” and, “How do we get success in life?” The thing we don’t realize is that when we answer this question we usually point to things that are outside of ourselves: our titles, our jobs, our income or 401k, our house or neighborhood, or our children—that they grow to love and serve God and become productive members of society. The scary thing is, as many have learned so tragically lately, we have little to no control over these things. Yet this is where we have placed our hope that success will emerge. Over these last six months, I have begun to have a new definition of success emerge in my life’s pursuit. Please allow me to take you on this journey to share with you the exciting things that God has been doing inside us including, the birth of our third child, my working one less job, our recent move and purchase of a new house in Brighton, our growing church and our hopes.
Hardly anything brings more joy into a family than the birth of a new baby. And this remains true with our latest addition to the Ross clan, Mattox Brophy Ross. He was born on December 22nd, and he is a very pleasant and plump 7 month old boy now, spending most of his time either being entertained by big brother and big sister or trying to crawl around with them. As Chas was ending her eight weeks of maternity leave, we were apprehensive about juggling three kids while she works from home. For the last six years, since the birth of our first son Sam, my wife has been able to work her job on a work-from-home basis. On her first day back after maternity leave however, she was informed by her new supervisor that she would now no longer be able to work from home. She would now need to come into the office every day (about an hour drive each way). We scrambled and searched and tried to find any way that she would be able to continue to work from home, but it quickly became evident that all doors were closing on this chapter in our lives. We reluctantly took a look at day-care, but found we were looking at an additional expense beyond $2000 a month. I was making half that at my second job with Dare 2 Share Ministries, so the only remaining option became for me to step down from that job and to work from home as pastor of Bridge Church while taking care of our 3 kids. This has been a step of faith—we have about $1000 less to live on each month and everything is impossibly tight right now.
Yet God was not done re-shuffling our lives. When we first moved out to Colorado 8 years ago we purchased a house, but it was now too small for our growing family and it was twenty five miles from our new church. We had our house on the market from when we first began to plant Bridge Church in Brighton until now, but in that year and a half we had very few showings. Even with us listing it at a loss in equity (in 8 years at that house, we had added A/C, a patio, hardwood floors, and finished the basement) we were getting very few showings. Foreclosures in our neighborhood (selling fifty thousand less than we had originally paid for our house) made our chances look not so good. Then, the same day that I stepped out in faith giving my two-weeks-notice at my second job, God brought a buyer to the table which would enable us to finally move to Brighton.
I used to imagine that when someone sold a house that there was a scene that followed the closing where they had heaps of dollar bills floating in the air like autumn leaves. What I never expected was that we would actually have to give the buyer money in order for them to buy our house. The flipside of this was that there were equally willing sellers in Brighton who helped us into our new house. Plus with interest rates and house prices at rock-bottom, we were able to purchase a much larger house in Brighton, only 3 miles from our church, and we now have a house payment that is slightly less than it was at the old house.
With us being able to finally move to Brighton, God has been bringing new growth and excitement to Bridge Church. New families have become part of our mission to love people more and love Jesus most. With the extra time I have gained (having one job), I have begun meeting with several men for the purpose of mentoring and discipleship.
The final change in our lives comes this Sunday when I will be ordained (finally). I’m not yet sure what to expect. No doubt it will be nowhere near the difficulty of the 40-page paper that I had to write or the grueling hours sitting before an ordination board. It will be weird seeing “Rev. Tony Ross” written out and even weirder hearing it said. But when it is all said and done, I guess it will be like having a birthday—you wake up the next morning saying, “Well, I guess I feel 35 now, but I don’t feel any different.”
In the final evaluation, it is not the titles we wear, nor the places that we live that make us a success in God’s sight. Neither is it the job we work, or how many jobs we work, that finally produces success in life. And though we love them, it is not even our kids—their growth, education, safety and successful careers that make us a success. Success is granted deep within our souls in the quiet place where we connect with God—in that sacred place where He knows us and He allows us to know Him. That is success.
Loving people more, Loving Jesus most!
Tony