True Success – Sunday, December 07, 1980
The definition of the word success varies from individual to individual, from culture to culture. For some people, it has to do with the acquisition of wealth. For others, success involves professional titles or social status. And still others define success in terms of the amount of time available for recreation or leisure.
An entry from the diary of one American writer, however, suggests that true success has more to do with the inner successes of the soul than with external prosperity: “I have never made more than enough money to buy the necessities of life; my works are largely unknown;
except for the love of my family and a few good friends, I have earned no prestigious titles.
But,” he adds, “I have lived simply, laughed frequently, and loved deeply—I am a success.”1
These words are food for thought: To live simply is to bring life into focus; it is to prioritize life, rejecting the extravagant, the unnecessary, while making room for the truly important. To live simply is to succeed at the organization of things for the sake of the soul.
Laughter, another indication of true success according to this writer, is an assurance of inner peace, a sign that all is well behind the partitioned walls of self. With laughter, even the poorest individual is a success; without it, the richest is a failure.
Perhaps the greatest evidence of inner success is a sincere and profound affection for someone other than ourselves. Loving deeply implies a denial of our own wants in favor of the needs of others. Whether it is extended to wife, or to husband, to children or grandparents, or to God, love is one of the soul’s greatest accomplishments.
It was Jesus who distinguished between the true success of the soul and the false achievements of fame and fortune: “For what shall it profit a man,” he queried, “if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”2 Indeed, of what value are the extrinsic possessions of wealth and notoriety, without the internal prosperity which results from the personal achievements of the soul?
With all of our successes, let us also achieve true success—the kind which comes from living simply, laughing frequently and loving deeply.
1 M.L. Robinson, Diary, unpublished. 1979.
2 New Testament, Mark 8:36.
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December 07, 1980
Broadcast Number 2,677