Success is not a bad thing. Nor is money, or power. Whenever we set out to do something, we should try to do it to the best of our ability. No one wants to hire a contractor who is only going to do an “ok” job. No one wants the dentist who only gets it right half of the time. We want someone who is good at what they do, someone who will succeed in the task before them. We also want to be that person who does that work. But there comes a point where the drive to be successful can become the ultimate thing, an unappeasable god that sets out to rule us, instead of a tool for us to use.
Our culture is obsessed with success. From the time our kids are in grade school they are taught to compete against each other and to win… at all costs. Why is this a bad thing? Because eventually we all fail.
When we take a good thing, like success, and make it an ultimate thing, the greatest thing, it becomes a god. And like any pagan god of the ancient world, it has no eyes to see us, no ears to hear us. It is an idol as sure as a statue of Shiva is, but it is in our hearts. The problem with these heart idols is that they can never bring us true joy. Why you ask? Because when we fail, we cannot receive forgiveness from these idols. When we fail, there is no sense of restoration available, because we have put our hope in the abstract concept of success, or money, or power… and these things leave us empty when we fail in them. They cannot forgive us our missteps and mistakes.
Even when we succeed in them, we are only left with a hunger for more success, more money, more power, because just as there is no redemption, no forgiveness when we fail, there is no true satisfaction when we succeed. There will always be more we could have, more we could do, more money we could make, more influence we could gain. These false gods cannot fulfill us. They can only leave us with an empty ache… a want of more.
Instead of becoming tools, money, success, and power become ends in themselves. They become our reason for living. We serve them instead of them serving us.
Jesus, on the other hand, “Came not to be served by us, but to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:28. He came to win us to himself. What other God has done that? Jesus came and offered himself as a sacrifice for our sin… yours, mine, everybody’s.
Now, instead of serving a false god that cannot satisfy, we can instead serve a true God who not only satisfies, but is for us, for our good, for our life. There is redemption in this God. There is fulfillment in this God. And unlike these abstract concepts that will leave us pained if we fail, and empty if we succeed, this God, this Jesus, takes us as we are, forgives us, and gives us new life and meaning in knowing him.
How do we know him? We have but to ask to know him, to believe in our hearts that Jesus is who he said he is… the Son of God, the Savior of the World. (Romans 10:9-10.) When we believe that, when we trust in him to give us new life, we can begin to live for the only God who can truly satisfy.
Pastor Aaron Knapp