Re-Imagining Success

So I was working out the other day (stop laughing) and I was listening to some Eminem (I said stop laughing!).  Anyway, the following lyrics jumped out at me:

So tell me, what the hell is a fella to do?
For every million I make, another relative sues
Family fightin' and fussin' over who wants to invite me to supper
All the sudden, I got ninety-some cousins 

A half-brother and sister who never seen me
Or even bothered to call me until they saw me on TV
Now everybody's so happy and proud
I'm finally allowed to step foot in my girlfriend's house

I think Mr. Mathers makes a rather astute observation here.  As much as he's often reviled and demonized for his lyrical content, as soon as he became successful everyone wanted to be his friend.  And that got me to thinking. 

I feel like we often refer to material wealth as being the god of America.  But maybe that's not quite right.  Maybe we don't worship at the altar of greed and consumerism.  Maybe these things are just symptoms of a deeper reality.

I think what we really worship here in America (and probably around much of the world) is Success.  That is what we orient our lives around.  We structure everything to give ourselves the best chance of becoming successful.

We tell children to work hard and get good grades in school so they can go to a good college.  Then we tell them to work hard there so they can go to a good grad school or get a good job.  Then more working hard, more late hours, more meetings and more deadlines and more, more, more . . .

Then, if we're lucky, if we've worked hard enough, we earn the label of Success.  Our parents speak proudly of us to their friends, our peers look up to us, the mayor gives us the key to the city and throws a ticker tape parade . . . okay, maybe not, but it sure feels that way.

The big house, the nice cars, all the fancy gadgets?  I think those are just ways we broadcast our status of Success.  They let other people know that we've made it. 

And the church is not immune from worshiping at the altar of Success.  It may measure it in other ways: congregation size, number of services, quality of the worship team, the pastor's prestige, how nice the building is, how many programs are offered, etc.  But the goal is the same - to be successful.  It's all about which Christian author is selling the most books, which blogger is getting the most hits, which contempervant semi-worship soft rock band is getting the most plays on K-Love.

I started to wonder how Jesus' ministry would be defined using our standards of success? 

Well, he did very little of note for about 90% of his life.  That's generally frowned upon.

He did stir up quite a bit of buzz when he was in his early 30's, that's a plus.  However, much of it was negative.  And most of the negative stuff came from the most respected religious leaders of the day.  Big minus.

After feeding 5,000 men (plus maybe women and children) with some bread and fish, he acquired a large following of people.  Of course, then he told them to eat his flesh and drink his blood and they all left him.  It's almost like Jesus didn't realize the point was to have as many followers as possible.

He was called demon possessed and that never helps your ministry.  Also was called a glutton and a drunkard (if you're a baptist, that's even worse than being called demon possessed).  He was known to hang out with the wrong kind of people, especially some women of a certain profession that were sure to damage your reputation.  He was run out of town, people wanted to throw rocks at him, a crowd shouted for his death.

He was prosecuted as a criminal, abandoned by even his closest friends.

He died.  Alone.

And yet, what was Jesus' ministry if not the single greatest success in the history of the world?  That all of mankind was reconciled to God because of him.  That people saw Love walk before them, they spoke with Grace personified.

Jesus stated at least a couple times that he did whatever he saw his Father doing.  He didn't fail because he never pastored a large church or wrote a best-selling book or made an appearance on whatever the Christian version of Oprah is.  He succeeded because he walked in step with Father.

So I guess that brings us to an interesting question or two.  If our definition of success doesn't match God's definition, what are we trying to achieve?  If our pursuit of becoming successful is wildly different than a simple walk alongside our loving Father, where are we headed?  Is it possible that we find life and joy with Father in the midst of glorious failure?  Is it even possible that we've had it backwards all along, that it's actually in ceasing this crazy race to become successful that we find the freedom to move in rhythm with God's heart?

I know I'm not immune to the siren call of Success.  I often catch myself looking at my life and wondering what the hell I'm doing.  But for me, part of this journey has been letting go of defining success in terms of prestige, notoriety, wealth, or praise.  Instead, I'm slowly (very, very slowly) learning to see God working in the world around me, loving ordinary, beautiful, frustrating, wonderful people, and inviting me to join him.

I'm starting to think that sounds much better than being a success.