I reached the goal. I thought I'd feel full. I feel empty.

Reaching the thing you worked years for and feeling nothing is disorienting enough to feel like ingratitude. In the parable the servant with five and the servant with two heard word for word the same commendation. The size of the result was never what was being measured.

The conversation

The child: “Daddy God, I reached the goal. I thought I'd feel full. I feel empty.”

God: “That emptiness isn't a malfunction. It's a signal.”

The child: “What does success look like to You?”

God: “A master gave three servants different amounts. Then he came back.”

God: “One doubled five. One doubled two. Both heard the same words.”

The child: “So the amount doesn't matter?”

God: “Not to Me. The world counts the score. I count the stewardship.”

God: “The one who buried his talent said it plainly: 'I was afraid.'”

The child: “What about when success makes me proud?”

God: “'What hast thou that thou didst not receive?' Everything was given.”

The child: “So what do I do now?”

God: “'Thou hast been faithful over a few things... enter thou into the joy.'”

The child: “I want to hear You say 'well done.'”

God: “You will. Faithful is enough.”

"His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." Matthew 25:21, KJV

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