Success

About a month ago, I went on a retreat to a beautiful beach in the Gulf of Mexico with other young adults. During one of our discussion times, Byron proposed a question about what success looks like. He asked us to name people that were successful and we came up with names such as Michael Jordan, Donald Trump, Bill Gates, and quite a few Mexican names as well (most of whom I had never heard). These people certainly epitomize success in their own way. Or do they? As we discussed what success is from a worldly perspective and then a biblical perspective, we came to the conclusion that these people show no signs of being truly successful whatsoever. Each one may be at the top of his field, but eternally speaking, their accomplishments mean nothing. As Christians, these are not the names that should come to mind when we are trying to look for successful role models. But what does it mean to be successful according to the Bible?

I think that the most successful people are the ones that are in the center of God’s will for their lives. These people are glorifying God in their lives and are finding it to be very satisfying to their souls. They are happy and joyful people because they are worshipping and serving a happy and joyful God. That is why I don’t think all that much of the folks that we named in our discussion. They may have plenty of money and a lot of stuff, but are they truly happy?

Instead of looking at Michael Jordan, Bill Gates and the others, I turn to the Apostle Paul, Jesus and the many others that the Bible encourages us to be like. Paul had been at the top of his field as a high-ranking Jewish leader and a citizen of the Roman Empire. This was an extremely rare and highly valuable combination (he may very well have been the only one). Paul had a lot of influence over a lot of people. It is no wonder that he was so zealous in persecuting the followers of this Jesus guy who was undermining his authority as a Jewish ruler. But Paul encountered the living Christ and his entire life was radically changed. He became one of the most important people in the spreading of the Gospel, particularly to non-Jews, and after many years of suffering in the footsteps of that same Christ he had once hated, he looked at all that wealth, position, popularity and influence that he had once had and called it a pile of crap. Jesus was so much more satisfying to him (even while stuck writing letters in a Roman prison cell) than anything he could have accumulated in this world. Paul was very un-American (would he even recognize the American church today as Christian?), but he was ultimately one of the most successful people in the history of the world by being willing to give up things that didn’t matter to have what would most deeply satisfy his soul.

Jesus is, of course, the ultimate example. He spent the last three years of his life ministering to people, meeting their needs, healing them from all kinds of diseases, freeing them from the bondage of sin and a repressive religious system, gathering enormous crowds of people who hung on his every word, and yet (unlike most of today’s Christian leaders) he accumulated virtually nothing. He had no home and no possessions to speak of. He trusted his Father to meet every need every step of the way, and he ended up on the cross because of it. Yet, he knew there was joy set before him (Hebrews 12) because he was exactly in the center of God’s will.

It is amazing to have a faith that points to a bloody mass of human flesh hanging on a cross and says, “Look at this man. Isn’t he beautiful? Be like him because that is what true success looks like.”

Would you trade your life right now to live like Michael Jordan?