Charlie Brown, Eeyore, Routing a Thousand and the Purpose of Success

So it seems like success in our lives is a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, experiencing some measure of success is vital to becoming fully human. Apart from a deep sense of satisfaction about something that we do well, we are doomed to live the perpetual Charlie-Brown-meets-Eeyore life: a lovable loser, "thanks for noticing me" emptiness.

On the other hand, very few things pose as great a threat to our spiritual vitality as success. When we experience success in any arena, our most instinctive response is generally "Go, me."

This instinct most often pushes God to the margin and ourselves to the center. We fall prey to the very first lie spoken to our grandmother: "you will be like God."

As I finish up in the OT book of Joshua, the man is old and wise and very aware of this propensity to take pride in our own accomplishments...and in the process, to forget God:

One of you routs a thousand, because the LORD your God fights for you, just as he promised. So be very careful to love the LORD your God. --Joshua 23:10-11

This call to "be very careful to love the LORD" in the midst of victory is precisely what the people do not heed over the course of their history as a nation.

Israel's repeated rhythm of success, forgetting God, warnings from God, punishment, crying out to God in the midst of that punishment, and God's deliverance would almost be comical if it didn't hit so close to home.

Here's the deal: if success drives us back onto ourselves and trials are the only things that will bring us back to God, then we can expect a lot of trials in our lives. God is more interested in our character than in what we call success.

But if we can learn the spiritual discipline of celebration with God; if we can learn to experience success and have it bring us back to the LORD; if victories can bring us back to the One who has the final victory over all things, then the full extent of the blessings of both trials and successes can fully bless us as they were intended to: showing us God's character and his delight in us as his children.

Success is always a gift from God. If we learn to receive it as such, delighting in the gift, yes, but even more so in the giver, then we have experienced God's ordained purposes for that gift.

If we only take delight in the success itself, then the gift becomes a curse. And God, in his severe mercy, is often good to revoke it in order to draw us back to the fountain apart from whom we can have no true life.