In the rush of modernity, the question of how to achieve success seems perpetually before us, and penetrates our society far more deeply than is obvious at first glance. Success has been an invaluable marketing tool for those who have something to sell and, for that reason, its influence is often difficult to spot.
The Instagram ads pushing Ozempic or other GLP-1 medications often use the argument that you are more likely to achieve success with a skinnier body … and so you should do whatever it takes to fast-track your way there. Likewise, red-pill influencer Andrew Tate says that success is only achieved when you make enough money to “break free from the matrix” and live by your own rules … and so you should buy his “Hustlers University” course so that he can enlighten you on how to do this.
The human search for success is quite natural. We all desire to do something good, or at least noticeable, in this world. The trouble is that around every corner, another predator waits to exploit our deepest desire for his own gain. In this sense, the line from the classic film The Princess Bride can ring somewhat true. “Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”
Knowing this should cause believers to be quite careful about adopting an ideology of success. If we choose the wrong one, it could be subtly in contradiction to our faith and, as such a guiding force, could undermine God’s influence over our everyday decisions.
Success in the Abstract
Success is, ultimately, an abstract idea. You cannot experience success with any of your five senses, and yet it is an idea that we talk about often and that heavily influences our lives. For the purposes of this discussion, success can be defined as the achievement of a personal sense of fulfillment that is accompanied by outward evidence that such fulfillment is justified. And since this year is the 250th anniversary of the existence of our country, it seems appropriate to analyze one of the most pervasive ideologies of success.
The “American Dream,” as it has been known throughout the past century, is a multifaceted worldview that holds a view of success that is quite attractive to most people living in the Western world. This ideology has four main aspects to it: financial prosperity, professional or political achievement, familial stability, and communal cohesion.
It does not take long to realize that the American Dream falls short of the definition of success. It accounts for the outward evidence but offers no guarantee of the inward fulfillment that success requires.
Once reaching the heights of financial success, the one-percenter will quickly realize that he must either gain more wealth and power or turn to a different source of happiness and fulfillment. Upon climbing the corporate or political ladder to the top, the CEO or politician of the largest entity will find that his toil has simply produced more responsibilities, greater pressures, and, eventually, loss of power at retirement.
Subservient to a Greater Good
Although “he who finds a wife finds a good thing,” and “children are a gift from the Lord,” the man seeking fulfillment in flawed humans and relationships will always be left wanting. Marriages will have moments of fragility or even brokenness, children stray from the teachings of their parents, and the support and provisions for a family never seem to be enough.
The outward evidence is there. Anyone on the outside looking in would expect this person who has it all to feel fulfilled, happy, and successful. So why don’t they?
The answer is not because there is anything inherently wrong with wealth, power, family, or community. On the contrary, the American Dream is a relatively good ideology of success as it promotes such virtuous behaviors as hard work, marriage, and personal responsibility. Even so, the moment that it becomes the primary driving force of our life, both it and we will fail. As with everything else, it must be subservient to something greater.
Philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote, “What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words, by God Himself.”
This idea is commonly referred to as the “God-shaped hole.” It carries the deep truth that no good thing can fully satisfy us because we were created to be satisfied by the Great Thing.
Vanity of Vanities, All Is Vanity
Perhaps the preacher in Ecclesiastes says it best. After examining pleasure, wealth, work, wisdom, and achievement, he concludes that “all is vanity.” Yet his conclusion is that the “whole duty of man” is to “fear God and keep His commandments.” At the end of it all, this is where we will find true success.
God’s commandment, His rod and His staff that comforted David, His law that is written on our hearts according to Jeremiah, the Word that became flesh that was revealed to John — this is our ideology of success. This is what deserves the coveted position as the guiding force of our lives.
We should allow God and His commandments to actively imbue every aspect of who we are and the way we live. Wealth, achievement, family, and community are all good gifts offered by the American Dream, but they were never meant to sit on the throne of our hearts. Only God belongs there. Then, and only then, will we find true fulfillment.
— Caleb Phillips is a member of Cities Church in Saint Paul, Minn. He studied Political Science and Bible at the University of Northwestern-St. Paul. Phillips is passionate about striving toward the truth of Scripture and Christ-centered politics.