by Damon Lane
The world describes success in terms of tangible things, things you can feel, touch and see. Authentic success has zero to do with things we can touch and feel, the tangible things in our lives. In fact, the only way you can experience authentic success is to see it in action either in your own life or someone else’s. Authentic success is not measured the way society measures success. Almost always when I hear someone introduce a person as being successful, they are referring to tangible things the person has accumulated or achieved in financial terms, be it a financial powerhouse business or career that pays a large salary. Many times, they are simply referring to the tangible things such as cars, planes, yachts, or big expensive homes that one owns. These things are very subjective and many times only appeal to those persons who see them as a marker of success. Rarely is someone referred to as successful due to their exemplary character or achievements they have accomplished for the betterment of others in the world. Yes, at times that happens but it is rare.
Authentic success is defined as what is true, genuine, and real. Authentic success is not subjective as the world sees it, it is very much objective and completely knowable. Whether a person will admit it or not the only place we can find how to define authentic success is from the One who created everything that exists and who created every human being whether they acknowledge Him or not. For the Christian this should be an absolute no-brainer to admit and understand. For the non-believer the idea of a Creator God is a hard pill to swallow but, many non-believers will agree that many Biblical principles are worthy and very admirable when they witness them affecting the character of those who practice them.
The awesome thing about authentic success is that anyone can achieve it in their life, because it has nothing to do with how much or how little money one has and certainly has nothing to do with the tangible things we accumulate. Authentic success is achieved by actions in one’s life expressed through what we do for others and the love we share with our fellow inhabitants on this planet we all live on. The one huge difference between what society views as success and what Christians embrace if they are seeking to be mature in their walk with Christ is knowing how to enjoy a satisfied life that is sustainable, consistent and joyful. Authentic success has everything to do with relationships, our relationship with God and our relationships with every person we encounter daily.
Remember the last great thing you purchased that made you feel good, at least for a while? It was nice to get and it’s nice to have but how long did it take for the shine to wear off, either literally or in your original heart’s desire for it? Every human being wants to be happy, joyful and fulfilled. Every person desires a life that gives them meaning and purpose, a life that when they wake in the morning makes them want to get going and start another day. Nobody gets up in the morning running around kissing and hugging their stuff. We may like our stuff, we may even be grateful and appreciate our stuff, but stuff cannot give us a consistently satisfied life. A life that consistently rewards us with satisfaction can only come through loving relationships where we give ourselves to others. When we’re concerned with helping others have better lives, helping them with their needs, then we in return create a satisfaction in our own lives as well.
We live in a world dominated by subjective thinking, from philosophies of every sort and fashion that tickle the ears. Because we are brought up in a world that promotes conformity it’s easy to see how we can become a society of followers. We can tend to (if we are not cautious) parrot the ideas of our culture with our words and actions without questioning the validity of the belief being offered and simply follow along with the masses.
I think there are a couple of very important things to consider that can help us gain clarity in achieving a successful life. First, if we will only take time to seek God’s truth asking Him often as we read His Word and talk with Him daily to open our eyes, He will. He promises us that if we seek, we will find. Granted this will only make sense and will only be discernable by those who are Christians, which God’s Word makes very clear.
God tells us throughout scripture that true believers in Jesus Christ will face much opposition from non-believers especially as it relates to the things, they hold precious. The desire for money and more of it (greed), the desire for bigger and better (out of control materialism), the desires of the flesh in the areas of immoral acts, especially immoral sex, is what permeates our advertising, popular television shows, office talk, party talk, movies, etc. Suffice it to say that non-believers think God’s moral values, principles, and directives are outdated and of no value to them as they follow along with every wind of thinking that suits them. The most unfortunate outcome of this mass herd’s belief system is that it is alive and well in many churches in America. I’s been said many times that there is too much world in the church and not enough church in the world.
Because this is what we Christians face every single day as we interact with society, we must be “transformed by the renewing of our minds” by God’s truth. Another important part of the answer to the question then, of how do we as followers of Christ and not the world gain that awesome life that brings consistent satisfaction giving us a reason to get up every day, is to become “others centered”.
Simply put, we absolutely must believe God’s Word and follow His directions knowing that relationships are what matters most in a fulfilling life. As I said earlier, authentic success is found in giving our lives to God and to others, all others, even our enemies, even our family members who may treat us badly, our co-workers, our government officials, the drug addict, the homeless, widows and orphans, this of course means everyone we will ever come in contact with.
One of the hardest areas of life for a Christian who is seeking to become mature in their walk with Christ must come to grips with is materialism. For the last 30 years as a financial advisor, I have been asked many questions and one that has been asked more than once is “How does a Christian deal with money and things?” My challenge to them is to simply ask themselves, and study what God’s word says about those things. The second most talked about subject God deals with in His Word is money and material things with the subject of love for Him and others being first. So, I tell them to read and pray until God who promises He will, answers them. I also tell them that I have developed guidelines for myself that have helped me tremendously and I firmly believe they are in perfect harmony with scripture.
I do not believe anyone can dispute these things unless they twist scripture to the point it becomes what they want to believe for reasons that I cannot judge. I can find nowhere in God’s Word where He says it’s His will for His children to be rich and nowhere in His Word where He says He wants His children to be poor. I can also say I have never seen in His Word where He says it is wrong for His children to be rich or, where it’s wrong for his Children to be poor. Instead what I find is His warnings for us to not make riches and things idols, meaning not to worship them which also means they are to be used to glorify Him and used to bless not only ourselves and our families but to bless others so that they will also glorify God.
I also see in scripture where God judges our thoughts and actions by our motives, our “why”, why we do something or why we want something is a very strong indicator of whether we are growing into mature Christians. The ironic thing about all this is that many people, Christian and non-Christians alike, think that what the world’s values will bring them a successful life. But it does not, because it can’t. God clearly made us in His likeness to be like Him in many ways especially to be relational and to love Him and others in the same way we love ourselves. This is the only way to achieve truly authentic satisfaction in one’s life that is consistent day to day. Being rich and having lots of stuff is completely a matter of our why, our true motives as to why we want something or purchase something, and God knows our true motives to be sure.
So why we want or have something is scripturally a matter of motives. Do I want more money or more stuff or bigger and better because I want to impress others, to look successful (societies definition) and important in their eyes? This is a very important question and I can’t emphasize it too strongly. Pride was Satan’s sin, his downfall, his act of extreme disobedience, so let’s not make it ours! God hates pride but gives grace to the humble. And, only God’s ways provide authentic satisfaction that will last.
Our main goal when it comes to loving God and loving others must be to become mature and pure in our motives. And to be sure we can easily believe our motives are good when in fact they are not. Probably the biggest area of life where we fool ourselves into believing we are doing the right thing is in the area of money and things we want or have. Does this mean we must be perfect all the time in every situation when evaluating our motives and making sure we always do what is right in Gods eyes? Short answer is yes. Is that possible? I can’t answer for anyone else but me. I fail, I fail more often than I want to admit, but it is my goal to become more mature in my walk with Him, it is what I am trying to learn to do daily and live out through my actions and not just my words. Well-meaning words without actions are dead words, useless in our becoming mature true followers of Christ.
Seeking society’s brand of success leads to disappointments that show up sooner or later, and ugly pride that robs us of a life of purpose and meaning that creates a wonderful fulfilling and authentically consistent satisfaction every day.
Seek authentic success in your life. Live to give. Live to love God and what He loves most which is people, people in need and remember all people everywhere are in need, in need of Christ and our sincere genuine love. Living a life that focuses not only on ourselves and our families, but others as well is the only way to achieve an “authentically successful” life.