By: Pastor Steve Wilmot
Edgerton, Ohio
Even though I may not have met you, I know something about you. You want to be successful.
The world has a pattern for chasing success and God has a pattern. You must choose which pattern you are going to follow.
When it comes to which path you pick to pursue success, Jesus asks a pivotal question you should consider before deciding.
And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? (Matthew 16.26).
The world says: “Sacrifice everything for success.” God says: “Put me first and I will make you successful.” In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success (Proverbs 3.6).
You can copy the pattern this world doggedly goes along with, or you can carve out a different path — one God charted for success. The world’s pattern for success can be summed up in two characteristics.
1. They live life backwards.
They think, “Once I’ve become successful, I’ll give my spouse and kids the attention they deserve. But I can’t right now. I must make money (or whatever they’ve deemed is success) first.”
The problem with those who follow that pattern is they’ve wasted so much time neglecting their families that when they are “successful” their family has already moved on.
They don’t have the time or the interest to spend time with you. Once you come to see you’ve done life backwards, it’s too late to get back what you’ve lost.
(2) They separate life into Sacred and Secular.
In the world’s view, success in business, career, money and buying the latest gadgets are secular. They have nothing to do with God.
You can talk about God and church stuff on the weekend, but when Monday morning comes, you gotta roll up your sleeves and enter the “Real World” — a world God has nothing to do with. Since it’s all up to you to succeed, you must make whatever sacrifices are necessary regardless of the cost.
If you choose the world’s pattern for success, you’ll be disappointed one day down the road when you look around and see everything you’ve missed in your chase for success.
So many important things gone forever. A long list of regrets. No time machine to go back and get a do-over to clean up your mistakes.
No matter where you look for success, you’ll never find it if you’re looking in the wrong place. But if you make your Creator your purpose, and you live and work for him first, you’ll have few regrets later in life.
Maybe as you read this Pastor’s Ponderings, you know you’re chasing success the world’s way and you’re thinking, “This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. My life isn’t crappy. In fact, I’m feeling really good about my life.”
Don’t fool yourself. The Bible says, “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12.15).
It also states, “A man will reap what he sows” (Galatians 6.7). What you sow in your garden today doesn’t come up tomorrow. You sow now; you reap later.
Chasing success, the world’s way may be going fine today and tomorrow, but it won’t stay that way. It can’t if you do things backward from God’s way.
For eight years, Bronnie Ware provided palliative care for people living with serious and sometimes terminal illnesses. From the time she spent with her patients, she noticed many of them voicing similar regrets on their deathbed.
Over the years, Ware asked these patients two questions: Do you have any regrets? What are they? The second most common response was, “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.”
She writes: “This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship… All the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.”
Perhaps you see yourself in Nurse Ware’s words. You don’t have to stay there. It’s not too late to turn around and start chasing success according to God’s pattern: Put God first, character second, and family third.
If that’s not how you’re chasing success today, you need to make some urgent changes. Now.
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.