The word success is relative and needs to be defined or qualified. It can be correctly defined scores of ways. Have you ever articulated, verbally or in writing, your personal definition of success? A surgeon would call a life-threatening surgery a success if the person lived a healthy life after the surgery. A farmer or rancher would call a season a success if the crops planted became fruitful or animals raised produced healthy offspring. A businessperson (certainly including a farmer or rancher) would consider it a success if the price of their product exceeded their production costs. A student would call it a success if he or she graduated with grades that prepared them well for the future.
If you have not written out a definition of success, why don’t you do so before reading the rest of this blog? Why? Doing so forces you to drill down to what you value the most in life. Your definition reveals your core value system and your integrity—how all you consist of works as one fine-tuned machine. There is nothing wrong with success in itself. You can ask God for it and enjoy it. However, if success becomes one’s obsession or compulsion, you have allowed it to become a rival to God Almighty. Anything that competes with Him results in self-destruction sooner or later. The most abundant life is living out how God designed one to live. Anything that falls short of God’s design only causes disruption and some form of dysfunction, be it personal or social. There is no system or governmental structure that is sustainably fruitful other than living out the ways and values taught in His Word.
This is especially clear when you write out your definition of what comprises a successful life for you. I can define this type of success in diverse ways. But all definitions can be reduced to two fundamental ways. One of them relates to our world, which are outward elements that relate to how we feel about ourselves. This form of success is temporarily satisfying or leaves the compulsion for something more, thus short sighted. The other form of success focuses on one’s love relationship with God. It is noteworthy that at the end of life, instead of drawing worth from titles, achievements or financial status, Jesus and the apostle Paul’s success related to their worth in Father God’s value system. Jesus said I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do (John 17:4, NIV). Notice Paul did not write I have won my race but wrote I have done my best in the race, I have run the full distance, and I have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7, GNB). He said nothing about what others thought about Him.
There is nothing wrong with titles, wealth, acclaimed position or such things. However, when compared to leaving an honorable legacy, such accolades quickly fade into the shadows. Has the life you’ve lived so far left you still wanting something more or has it left you with a healthy sense of well-being, deeply felt contentment, peace and hope for the future? What statement in your definition of success, do you need to reassess in order to better reflect God’s definition of success? Jesus said, the thief comes only in order to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come in order that you might have life—life in all its fullness (John 10:10, GNB).