God's Idea of Success (Excerpt from "Masterpiece in the Making)
“He holds success in store for the upright” (Proverbs 2:7)
“Come and be a part of one of the fastest-growing churches in the nation.” These were the words posted on a billboard along a major highway in Atlanta, Georgia. As I pondered this marketing appeal, I realized how powerful a hook it really was. We live in a success crazy society. Success and the prestigious symbols that let others know of our success are paramount in many of our lives and churches. There are entire ministries built on the teaching that God wants his people to be successful in the most materialistic and worldly sense.
As a young man, success was high on my list of priorities. My father was a member of that generation of Americans that journalist Tom Brokaw labeled The Greatest Generation. Dad, together with others born in the early twentieth century, survived The Great Depression. He also saw the world change greatly as a result of World War II. For that, he literally had a front-row seat, serving as a co-pilot bomber flying off Navy aircraft carriers in the Pacific. Like many Americans who served in World War II, Dad lied about his age and signed up for the Navy at fifteen years of age.
When my father left the Navy after nine years of service, he earned a college degree in business, and later a law degree focusing on business law. He did all this while moving rapidly up the ladder in his company, marrying my mother, starting a family, and beginning two companies of his own. (More on this later.)
In a previous chapter, I mentioned my business degrees and time spent working for a Fortune 500 company. My plans were to join my father’s business, but I wanted to prove myself to him and everyone else first. After recommitting my life to Christ, things changed rapidly. In less than a year, I was back in church, married, and attending seminary in Texas. Some things, however, did not change.
I may have left the business world for the church world, but worldly ambition and a prideful hunger for success were deeply rooted in my life. I was blind to these things, but others around me were very aware of them. I remember meeting a former student years after graduating from seminary. The Divine Sculptor had chiseled away some major pride from my life by this time, and my friend noticed. “You’ve changed,” he said. “You mean I’m not the prideful guy you knew in seminary,” I answered? He nodded and smiled, “Yeah, that’s what I meant.”
I’m not as prideful as I once was, but I still have plenty of rough edges that need to be chiseled away. However, I have learned there is a big difference between God’s idea of success and the world’s idea. In the next several chapters, I want to share with you the joy that is found when we passionately and ambitiously seek success in the kingdom of God as opposed to the kingdoms of this world.
In these chapters, I share what I call “the rite of passage” for those of us who want to experience success in God’s way. I hope you’ll check them out.
In Christ,
Dan