The Seduction of Success
By Solomon White
Superstar quarterback Tom Brady once posted a photo of all six of his Super Bowl rings on Instagram. The caption read, “Do you know which ring is my favorite? ....The Next One!!!” While that sounds like a smooth line from an athletic legend, it reveals an underlying satisfaction problem by someone who seems to already have it all. With millions of dollars, unparalleled physical talent, a supermodel wife, a family that loves him, and success at the highest level in his field, Tom Brady is still not satisfied with the glory he’s bringing to his idol of success. And like Brady, we’ve all fallen into the idolatrous trap of worshiping the counterfeit god of success.
View from the Top
The danger of success is how ingrained it is in everything we do. It’s no wonder that we idolize success, especially in America where our hearts are geared towards valuing achievement from a young age. A culture of competition has been cultivated in the United States through sports programs and report cards. Development and discipline on the field and in the classroom are good things. But when we twist good things into ultimate things, they become bad things.
The problem arises when we do all that trying, sweating, and struggling until finally, we succeed. Once on top of that mountain, it can be difficult to come down because our identity is now in our achievement. From that mountain top view, our perspective gets skewed and suddenly we think because we’re proficient in one thing that means we’re proficient in everything. We start believing our own hype. We need to constantly find that next accomplishment or project, our Super Bowl, or we’re never satisfied.
Now, there is a certain temporal value to personal responsibility, but the lie we must resist is that we in ourselves have the autonomy to dictate our own destiny if only we “work hard enough.” This overwhelming pressure to succeed leads many young people to self-medicate with substance abuse and sex in a desperate attempt to cope with the pressure of being an overachiever. Some of the most successful, straight-A, class president type students are addicted to praise, porn, and pills.
True Success as an Outsider
Inner circles and social cliques compound the pressures of success by creating a fear of missing out and elitism. We begin to identify success by owning the latest gadget, the newest car, and the exclusivity of our social tier. C.S. Lewis called this the “Inner Ring” and saw it as a main motivation for success. He said, “You want...the delicious knowledge that just we four or five--we are the people who really know...As long as you are governed by that desire you will never be satisfied. Until you conquer the fear of being an outsider, an outsider you will remain.”
However, in the Kingdom of God, this is turned upside down as the outsiders will be the ones “in the know.” Matthew 20:26-17 says, “It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave.” God loves to work through the outsiders and those whom the world would call “unsuccessful.” Jesus is a king crucified for his people. This flies in the face of the traditional ancient religions that taught the gods always worked through the strong and mighty rather than the outcasts and failures. Jesus was seen as a failure to those in the inner ring of the ancient world. Yet it was through his righteous life, his humiliating death, and his triumphant resurrection that we are then able to share in his success.
You cannot good-deed your way to God, or volunteer enough community service hours to gain any sort of saving merit. Outside of faith, all our good deeds are as what Isaiah describes as “...like a polluted garment” (Isa 64:6). We often think we need to clean ourselves up a bit before walking through the doors of the church. But that is like saying you need to get well before you go to the doctor. A hospital is a place for the physically sick, and the church is the place for the spiritually sick and the spiritually dead. God brings life to the spiritually dead through Christ (Eph 2).
Christ calls us to pick up our own cross and follow him (Matt 16:24-26). Leave this world with nothing to lose. The only acceptable sacrifice we can bring to God for salvation is a contrite and repentant heart. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Ps 51:17). Christ’s success becomes our success because, in Christ’s upside-down kingdom, only the losers win.