Last week while I was in Arizona my friend Phil and I had an interesting discussion about God’s will in our lives. When we try to keep up with other’s worldly ambitions and priorities, there is an inevitable and continuous falling short of success. Mother Teresa said it best: “We aren’t called to be successful, but faithful.” This is not to say that success and faithfulness are mutually exclusive, but more so that we must not measure our worth in God’s eyes by our worldly success.

I have been called to be faithful and that has brought scattered worldly approval as being successful. Being on TV, associating with famous people, traveling the world speaking to young people…all these are the fruits of being faithful, not my striving for success. Being faithful to God’s will may mean that in two years I am asked to escape quietly to a small town as a youth minister of 10 high schoolers. This is victory in God’s eyes, even if the world sees that as being washed up or whatever.

Perhaps the easiest relevant modern analogy would be “keeping up with the Jones.” People spend years of their life trying to one-up the success with the neighbors down the street–prettier lawn, more luxurious car, more athletic and smart children, a bigger pool… And when one realizes life escapes them in the rat race, the veiled lifted and real happiness ensues.

So in this bustling city of nine million people, it is easy to measure one’s worth by where they live, what job they have, who they know, where they go, and who they associate with; this appears to be an accepted and encouraged social habit (though undoubtedly wrong.)

I am called to be in NYC and it will take daily effort not to get lost in this concrete jungle studded with money, fame, and elitism. The emotions that are stirred within me each day here are much like those I faced in New Orleans. While living in the Belfort Mansion I endured a setting foreign from my own, one festooned with countless distractions that could have lured me away from my true self. And just like in New Orleans, I eagerly jump into each day to experience each new adventure, but quietly guard the purity of my soul.