“Our greatest fear as individuals and as a church should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” Tim Kizziar
Jesus tells a parable which is recorded for us in the book of Luke that is all about a man who fancied himself as quite the success:
The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, “What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’” Luke 12:16-19
This man was successful. In today’s lingo, we might say that his business had a banner year. So he took all the proceeds and sunk them into the acquisition of more wealth. With what goal? To “take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” Why, isn’t that the American dream?
However, in Christ’s parable, the dream turns into a nightmare. For when it came time to meet his maker, all of his wealth did him no good. And, to the contrary, he was found to be a man who had invested much in the things of this world, but little in eternal things:
But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God. Luke 12:16-21
He was successful in the things that really didn’t matter. Or to put it another way, he climbed to the top of the ladder of success, only to find it was leaning against the wrong wall.
The temptation to succeed in the wrong things is all around us. Certainly, we can all relate to the appeal of being able to say to ourselves, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years.” According to American culture, having a healthy retirement that will enable us to experience a relaxed and pleasurable conclusion to our life on planet earth is one of the grandest hopes a person could have. Is this not the very definition of success?
Of course, the problem with this perspective is that it is focused only on life on planet earth. The question is—Do we believe that there is more to life than this life? Do we believe, as the Scriptures reveal, that life eternal makes our time on this earth seem like just one small pixel on the 70 inch flat screen of our lives? Do we believe that God measures success not on how much pleasure we produce for ourselves, but on how faithfully we loved Him, how zealously we sought to bring the joy of the gospel to people in our sphere of influence and around the world, and how diligent we were to sow God’s Word into the lives of those we came into contact with on a daily basis? In other words, were we light and salt on this earth? Did we point people to Jesus in our words and deeds? Did we bring glory to the name of God as we fulfilled the greatest command, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength”?
If you are like me, you need these reminders again and again and again. Thankfully, God inspires men and women to repeat this message time and again through various mediums and in different places. The book in which I found the quote with which I begin this article is actually a tremendous example of such a reminder, Francis Chan’s Crazy Love. It is a book all about experiencing success in the things that count. It is a relatively easy read, length-wise. But it is anything but easy in terms of the message. Don’t let the title fool you. This book packs a punch. Having said this, it is kind of like eating your greens—though it may not taste sweet going down, it provides lots of the nutrients we need to grow.
Of course, learning to enjoy God’s blessings while prioritizing God’s kingdom, is not easy to do. Thankfully, we have the transformative Word of God and the indwelling Spirit of God continually working in us to shape us into the likeness of our Father God. May we keep growing to reflect our God more and more in all that we are, say and do.
In Christ, Pastor Dan
Note: Crazy Love is now available to borrow from the RBC library.