What Is Success?

A wealthy entrepreneur was quoted in an article, “When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.”

When you want to gain respect through success, then success is often defined through quantifiable variables. But I think the wealthy entrepreneur was attempting to pass along a life lesson on to others. Life is more important than metrics. True success is often immeasurable. I think he was trying to tell us, “You are dearly missed not because of what you’ve attained, but because of what you represented.”

Within the context of eternal life in heaven, I would apply a different perspective to the wealthy entrepreneur’s line of thinking. When I die, I would like to think that people I loved and mattered to me would be sad, but I will be rejoicing in heaven. And, Lord I pray, someday they will join me.

Earthly success will pale significantly compared to the heavenly rewards made possible only through Christ. If success is truly defined by eternal life in heaven, then Solomon is right, everything on this earth is truly meaningless — a chasing after the wind.

This causes me to wonder if numbers will matter in heaven?

Keeping an eternal perspective, then a successful life can only be defined by entering heaven. A successful life in Christ ought to be based on what you represented — a redeemed soul who actively delivered messages of salvation, not how many people responded to it. Faithfulness is what will be rewarded in heaven, not results.

With praise on our lips for what Christ has already done for us, we exercise our saving faith in Christ and proclaim this message to others.

“[Heaven] is not a future that is just a consideration for the life we never had but a restoration of the life you always wanted. …every horrible thing that ever happened will not be undone and repaired but will in some way make the eventual glory and joy even greater.”

[Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism]

I have one more thing for you.

“Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)

I appreciate this verse from Isaiah. But more often than I dare to confess, I find myself squirming rather than soaring, jogging rather than running, or fainting with worry than brimming with hope. My preoccupation with self consistently taps into an empty reservoir that hardly renews my strength. My self-pursuit distracts my soul from plugging into God’s promises.

My sinful nature keeps me grounded in forgetfulness. When I think I am trying to help God and further his will, I tend to exercise my own stubbornness and ideas on what God should be doing. God graciously allows me to discover that only in my weakness there is strength, and in my dependency on him, I shall not be weary. Because God promises to carry me when I feel faint.