by
ARMEL LWAMBA

What does it really mean to be successful? Nowadays, everybody wants to be successful, and we all have this common idea that being successful means achieving your dreams, having it all; the money, the perfect partner, the dream car, etc. in other words, having the dream life.

May I suggest that we take the time to pause and think about this for a second. Does being successful really means what we think it does? If so, why do successful people end up putting an end to their lives? Were they really successful? One may say that they were successful, but they just weren’t happy. But then, how can someone be successful and yet not be happy? It doesn’t make sense, does it?

If you want to know how many successful people, according to the world, have ended their lives, in the first century alone, I invite you to take a look at the list of suicides in the 21st century alone. It’s a list comprised of well-known celebrities but also people you may have never heard of before. In 2018, Kate Spade, an American fashion designer and entrepreneur as well as a fashion Icon, was found dead in her Manhattan apartment on June 5. Her death was ruled a suicide by hanging. Police reported that she had left a note which was addressed to her daughter. The next day, her husband made a statement regarding her death (WIKIPEDIA, 2022). Note that she isn’t the only celebrity figure to have died of suicide that year; Anthony Bourdain, a well renowned American chef died that same year, his death was also ruled a suicide. Over the years, many people have ended their lives, from celebrities to nobodies. The reasons may differ, but you have to admit that it makes you wonder, does the world truly know what being successful means? Here’s something for you to really take the time to consider very carefully. With that said, I invite us to find the answer to that question someplace else.

‘Nothing makes sense! Everything is nonsense. I have seen it all—nothing makes sense! What is there to show for all of our hard work here on this earth? People come, and people go, but still the world never changes. The sun comes up, the sun goes down; it hurries right back to where it started from. The wind blows south, the wind blows north; round and round it blows over and over again. All rivers empty into the sea, but it never spills over; one by one the rivers return to their source. All of life is far more boring than words could ever say. Our eyes and our ears are never satisfied with what we see and hear. Everything that happens has happened before; nothing is new, nothing under the sun. Someone might say, “Here is something new!” But it happened before, long before we were born.’

                                                                                                                                                (Ecclesiastes 1:2-10, CEV)

This piece of Scripture alone, sums up so well the fact that there’s nothing under the sun that will ever be able to satisfy a man. Nothing will ever be enough, there’ll always be a longing for more, a space in our hearts that will be empty. Because after all, everything under the sun is vanity, temporary pleasures and possessions called to disappear one day. So, let me ask you, how in the world can something temporary, called to vanish one day, is meant to fill you, or make you successful? There are times in life when I found myself in a never-ending cycle that keeps on repeating itself until we finally come out of the loop by dying one day. If we do not want to live in such a place, we need to find meaning, a reason for which we have to live, a purpose to our lives that makes it worth living.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky once wrote, “The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.” In other words, the purpose of life is a life of purpose. If we know why we are here; if we have a reason for our existence – we feel more connected, more alive (Vries, 2018).

We all need to have a purpose. We weren’t just placed on earth for the sake of it, each and every single one of us has a part to play, has a purpose to fulfil, a purpose revealed to us by God. God who created us, did so with a purpose in mind, whether big or small, each and every single one of us is suited for their respective purpose. You want to know what yours is, good, ask God and I believe He’ll reveal it to you. Otherwise, why would He create you and stay quiet on you when you ask Him the reason why He created you, persevere in asking God what your purpose is and wait to hear with great expectancy. The problem with us is that we don’t take the time to ask Him, we assume or just decide to live like the rest of the world lives. Jesus Himself, came on earth with a purpose in mind, He came to accomplish the work He had to do.

“I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”                             
(John 17:4, NLT)

If Jesus Himself lived a life of purpose, what more than us? We too ought to live our lives with purpose, for living our lives in such a manner brings glory to God and he who lives to truly give God glory, will not be put to shame nor even think of ending their own life.

After all this, someone may ask, “what about my dream, should I just give up on it?” The thing with dreams, is that sometimes it is in line with what God has created us for. Even if you have a dream, it is important to ask God what His dream for us is. Trust me, it is best to submit yourself to His authority and follow His dream for you than rebel and fulfil your own dream for yourself. You may easily end up miserable and miss out your life even if you end up obtaining all the meaningless things that will make your life seem great when in reality isn’t. If we do call Him Lord, i.e., Master, we ought to listen to what He has to say about our dreams and submit to the dreams He has for us, for that is where we will find our respective purposes.

‘It is useless to work so hard for a living, getting up early and going to bed late. For the LORD provides for those He loves, while they are asleep.’

(Psalm 127:2, GNT)

This is a strange verse, isn’t it? And we always thought that we had to work extra hard in order to lack not. This verse put once more a pin on the fact that everything under the sun is meaningless and as much as you end up getting all you’ve ever wanted, it means nothing if you are bypassing God in order to obtain all of those things. My hope is that you may realise it sooner than later, realise how empty your life has been without God and get to come back to Him. It serves nothing to wake up early in the morning, work like crazy under the pretext that you’re doing it for such and such a reason while you are not doing one essential thing; giving your life to God, loving God, putting Him at the centre of everything that you do. God will always provide for those He loves. Many people I know are living testimonies of this. They are not rich; they’ve faced all sorts of struggles and yet God made sure to always provide for them.

I once watched a preaching in which the pastor so beautifully said that there were three basic levels in which we may find ourselves living.

The first one is the Survival level; this mode is all about trying every day to get by, try to make ends meet, try to get to the end of the day, the week, or the month. This mode is all about existing and not living. One lives without any drive; they are miserable and may easily wonder what’s the point of living.

The second level is the Success level. This is the level where most people want to find themselves. The level where we have managed to afford what we desire, what we think will satisfy us until we realise that we need more. It’s a level where we want to fill ourselves with all the meaningless things we could possibly think of and enjoy them while we are still on this earth. The goal of this level is comfort. However, comfort doesn’t mean satisfaction. You may live comfortably but you never really are satisfied. Most celebrities who have died of suicide lived at this level. Comfort won’t be enough to save you from anxiety or all the other sorts of demons that could cloud your mind. You may feel safe, but that safety is an illusion. It’s a level where we attach our identity to what we have, what we do or have done and never to Whose we are, because how could we? He doesn’t really matter, does He? After all, we managed to make it on our own. So, God can just be an added value to our lives. We can pray and go to church as a requirement without ever understanding the meaning of it all or even the significance of having the opportunity to pray or go into His temple or call Him Father (which was back in the days, a blasphemy to call Him Father and say that you are His kid). We may have given our lives to God but never submitted ourselves to His authority. Because it is one thing to confess that He is Lord and it is another to surrender our lives to Him, to call Him Lord and mean it.

‘“So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say? I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who hears and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house right on the ground, without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins.”’

                                                                                                                                                                (Luke 6:46-49, NLT)

Being saved is one thing, confessing to having been save is good and people at the Success level could very well be people that have been saved. But they just lost themselves along the way and did not diligently work out their own salvation.

The third and last level is the Significance level. Whether rich or poor, at this level, you do no longer identify yourself to what you do, what you have but to Whose you are, a child of the Most High King. You know that your life has meaning, you have chosen to submit your life to God and have decided to live a life of purpose not for yourself but for the glory of God.

At this level, you know that your life has significance not for your sake, but for the sake of your neighbour. Whatever your purpose may be, you know that it has nothing to do with you but has everything to do with the person next to you. At this level, you know that you aren’t the centre of it all, but God is and what He desires matters to you more than what you desire. It may be hard at first, but as time goes on, as you spend more time with Him, you come to realise how much sense it makes, and you find pleasure in that.

‘Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.’

                                                                                                                                                (1 Corinthians 9:25-27, NIV)

This piece of verse sums up so well the differences between living at the significance level and the other levels of life. We all compete in the games called LIFE. For the one living at the significance level, they no longer fill up their life with meaningless things, they get to spend quality time with God and fill it up with useful things that will serve them in living out their purpose for the sake of the one for whom God did not spare His only begotten Son. He loves you and I so much, He loved us before the foundation of the earth and has always wanted us to be saved. Because we get that, by the grace of God, we’re able to give up our lives and make ourselves slaves of righteousness so that God would finish what He began in each of us and at the same time save more lives than just our own. We get to understand what a privilege and honour it is to be part of something bigger than ourselves and what a shame it would be to choose to end our life.

At this level, we are willing to deny our own lives and follow Jesus. we know that God should not be an added value, but the foundation on which everything that were to ever enter our lives should rest. We are the added value to the story of God, to the plan that He has for humanity. We get that and we can give Him control.

‘Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.’

                                                                                                                                                                (Hebrews 12:1-3, NKJV)

After all this, it looks more to me like success does not lie in living the sweet life filled with meaningless things, but in running the race (determined by the purpose for which God created you. All you have to do, is ask, pray about it until you receive a revelation on the matter, and be expectant that He’ll reveal it to you) that has been set for each and every single one for us in order to win it. While you run, work out the salvation that you have been freely given, grow into the man He has called you to be and when the time comes, rest with the assurance of having lived a successful life.

More by
ARMEL LWAMBA

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