Obedience, not Results

Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I. Send me!" He said, "Go, and tell this people: 'Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand.' Isaiah 6:8-9 (NASB) I am a result-oriented person. If I do something, I want it to be worth my while. I want to know that there are going to be positive results. My motivation suffers when there are no positive results. Isaiah was told to go out and see a lot of negativity. People were going to close their ears because of his message. They weren't going to listen to him. But, he went anyway. Why? Because of obedience. He was profoundly compelled to be the vessel for God, to step out and accomplish a thankless task. I don't know if it's a Western mentality or just a human one, but if we watch someone try something and fail, we automatically assume it was because they never should have tried it in the first place. I'm very bad about making that assumption, both for myself and for others. But, as a child of God, maybe I need to look at it from a different perspective. I am not called to succeed or to fail. I'm called to obey. Whatever the outcome, whatever the result of my actions, I am not called to point to successes and say, "See, I obeyed and look what happened!" I'm instead called to be able to stand before God, as the writer of Hebrews did (Heb 13:18), with a clear conscience, knowing that I have obeyed in what I've been instructed by God to do...regardless of the results.