The Joy Metric: Rethinking Success in Life, Work, and Faith

We live in a culture obsessed with metrics. Businesses chase quarterly earnings. Entrepreneurs count followers, subscribers, and sales. Churches measure the Killer Bs: bodies, budgets, and buildings. Parents compare test scores and trophies.

People everywhere reduce success to what they can measure, quantify, and prove on an Excel spreadsheet.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: numbers don’t always tell the story. Even a booming business doesn’t mean you’ll be happy. A packed church can still lack transformation in people’s lives. A wall of diplomas and awards won’t stop you from feeling hollow.

So, what if we’ve been measuring the wrong things all along?

A Forgotten Metric

Years ago, while studying Acts 8, I stumbled upon a verse that stopped me cold. Philip had been preaching in Samaria. People healed. People’s lives transformed. Faith was spreading. Then Luke adds a quiet and yet profound detail:

“So there was much joy in that city.” (Acts 8:8)

Not “so there was a bigger budget.” Not “so the membership doubled.” Not “so the leaders became more influential.” The marker of God’s work was joy.

That was a lightbulb moment for me. Maybe joy — not numbers, not influence, not efficiency — is the real metric of success.

Why Joy?

Scripture is drenched in joy.

• Nehemiah reminds a discouraged people that “the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. 8:10).

• The Psalms offer a vision of joy deeper than wealth or abundance (Ps. 4:7; Ps. 16:11).

• Jesus himself said his mission was to give us “full joy” (John 15:11).

Joy is not a luxury. It’s the fruit of knowing God, the evidence that something eternal is happening inside us.

And here’s the kicker: joy is not just for “religious” life. Joy is just as essential a metric for work, creativity, leadership, relationships, and culture.

When the Numbers Don’t Add Up

I learned this lesson the hard way in ministry.

Years ago, I was pastoring a small church plant. We had poured our hearts into it — long hours, sleepless nights, constant conversations about strategy and growth. But the numbers weren’t moving. Attendance plateaued. Giving lagged. Bills piled up.

I would stare at spreadsheets late at night, wondering how we were going to make it another month.

The pressure nearly crushed me. My prayers sounded more like accounting reports than communion with God. My worth rose and fell with whether we gained or lost a single family. I was burning out.

Then one Sunday, something shifted. As I looked out at our little congregation, I noticed faces lit up with joy. People sang with gusto. They hugged each other like family. They prayed with passion.

Some were brand-new believers who radiated the joy of discovering Jesus for the first time. Others were walking through difficult trials, yet still carried that unmistakable joy of the Lord.

And it hit me: the church may not have been growing in numbers, but it was overflowing in joy. That was the real story. That was success in God’s eyes.

Our city was being infiltrated with joy.

Joy Beyond Church Planting

This lesson didn’t just apply to ministry. It touched my writing too.

I’ve written more than twenty books, but here’s the honest truth: most of them don’t sell as many copies as I hoped. There were seasons when I obsessed over sales rankings, Amazon reviews, and marketing campaigns.

When numbers dipped, I felt like a failure.

Out of the blue, I got an email from a reader. She told me that one of my novels had helped her through a dark season of grief. She said she found joy in the story — not because it was a bestseller, but because it gave her hope.

That email stopped me in my tracks. I realized that success wasn’t about thousands of sales or glowing reviews. Success was that one person finding joy in the words I had written.

That perspective changed my approach to writing. I still care about craft and growth, but now I ask: is what I’m creating helping someone find joy, hope, or meaning?

If so, that’s a success.

Joy at Work and in Life

The truth is, joy works as a metric in every area of life.

In leadership: Are the people you lead growing in joy? Or are they burned out, fearful, or resentful?

In business: Does your product, service, or company culture spread joy? Or does it simply extract profit?

In family and friendships: Are laughter, gratitude, and presence part of our rhythms? Or are relationships reduced to logistics and obligations?

In personal calling: Are you pursuing projects that bring joy — both to you and others — or just chasing status, money, or approval?

Joy is not a shallow smile or a weekend escape. It’s a deep, sustaining strength that can hold up even in loss or hardship. As Paul put it: “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Cor. 6:10).

Five Questions to Recalibrate Your Joy

If joy is a metric, then we need ways to check it. Here are five questions worth asking yourself (or your team, family, or community):

1. What motivates me? Am I running on fear, ego, or comparison — or out of the joy of doing what I’m made to do?

2. What do I talk about most? Do conversations reveal joy in life, faith, and purpose — or just stress, complaints, and cynicism?

3. How do I respond to hardship? Is joy still present beneath the grief, or does it vanish at the first sign of difficulty?

4. Do I create joy for others? Am I lifting people up, or weighing them down with pressure and negativity?

5. Where am I looking for joy? Am I looking for joy in status, money, and recognition, or in the deeper, lasting joy that nobody can take away?

A Different Vision for Success

Joy doesn’t always show up on a balance sheet. It doesn’t trend on social media. It doesn’t always earn applause. But joy makes life worth living — and what makes our work, leadership, art, and faith magnetic.

I think back to that little church plant. By worldly standards, it was “unsuccessful.” By heaven’s standard, it was a place of joy.

I think back to that email from a single reader. By publishing standards, it was a “disappointment.” By God’s metric, it was a spark of joy in someone’s darkest season.

Imagine if joy defined our neighborhoods, companies, and churches instead of size or prestige. Imagine if you measured your life not just by your accomplishments, but by the joy you carried and shared.

That’s a different kind of success. A lasting one.

So let me ask: How’s your joy these days?

-Ryan