Success is Never Final – Sunday, July 28, 1946
There is a challenging phrase to the effect that “success is never final.” It is true that there are many who seem to be successful up to a point—and then something happens. Some win honors and achieve distinction in school years who seem to fail in meeting the real issues of life.
There are some who are precocious as children, whose early success is not sustained through later years. There are those who enjoy much popularity in their youth, but who later fail to fulfil the promise of their youth. On the other hand, there are “ugly-ducklings,” so to speak, who were overshadowed when they were young, but who achieve distinction in years of maturity. There are those who die too soon for success to reach them; there are those who die in the full flush of success; and there are those who outlive their own success. There are those who go through much of their lives, respected and in good conduct, who later make serious mistakes and lose all the reputation for success they ever had, some on moral grounds, some on financial grounds, some for causes unknown. But if they had died before they made such mistakes, they might well have been accounted successful.
Where fair judgment and justice lie in such issues would be beyond the power of mere men to say, and it is fortunate that the valid appraisal of success in life rests with the Lord God and not with any mortal judge. But this much we may surmise that it is the whole story of a man’s life that must ultimately determine whether or not he is successful, and not any single page or chapter of it. And there are none so young but what their performance has its effect upon the whole of their lives, and none so old as to place them and their actions beyond judgment. A little foolishness may destroy a long-standing reputation for wisdom, and a little brilliance may seem to cover a multitude of sins, but life is not a thing that begins and ends at two definable points; it is an eternal journey, to endless destinations; and the highest reward is for consistency of performance—not merely for occasional flashes of brilliance, or isolated acts of goodness, or brief periods of dependability.
It is still true, as it was when it was anciently spoken, that to him “that endureth to the end”1 come the greatest assurance of success and the greatest promise of having the labors of his life pronounced “Well done.”1
1Matthew 10:22.
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station K S L and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, July 28, 1946, 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon, EDST. Copyright 1946.