Is success making us miserable?

As the world spins out of control, we turn a blind eye. Harder, better, faster, stronger. We race for success, but what do we win?

Our thirst for success wins the wrong awards.

  1. Champions of anxiety per capita

  2. Top leader in single-parent households

  3. Masters of substance abuse

  4. Foremost in teen pregnancy rates

  5. Pornography production frontrunners

  6. Incarceration rate champs

But there’s a solution to this mess: Don’t push your way to the front; don’t fight your way to the top. Put yourself aside and serve others. Help them get ahead. Don’t obsess with your own success. Forget yourself and lend a helping hand.

Philippians 2:3

Adapted from The Message, © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson.

True success looks different.

Invite your neighbors over for food and friendship.

Surprise a friend with coffee just because.

Uplift your spouse in prayer every day.

Reconnect with an estranged family member.

Step in to support your team beyond your duties.

Ask your kids to play before they ask you.

Our self-centered nature resists this radical idea of success with all its might.

So we dare.

We dare to reject what isn’t working and never will. To renounce the Church of Me and chase the heart of Christ.

We dare to kneel low and lift others high. To serve without benefit, to give without gain. We dare to embrace the pain of love, no matter the cost. To make Christ irresistible to our world.

We dare to kneel.

The paradoxical heart of Christ is intricately woven through 66 books and 1,189 chapters of the Bible. Sometimes clearly evident, other times cleverly hidden—but always, all for you.