The Lie of Success

The Lie of Success

by

Sengbe Ben Yosef

 

  What is success? I know what the world says it is but what do you say? Most of us are programmed little dogs nearly none of our thoughts steam from our own internal thinking. Everything we think is the product of learned behavior. We allow the dictates of the world to inform our views and shape our thinking. We never stop to consider our own minds answers. So we become harden in our hearts and lack compassion.

  Let me offer you some proof of what I mean. A man by chance is born into a well to do family and has never had to work for a thing in his life... More than likely he inherit his father’s wealth. This man has done nothing to wart our respect. Yet we fall in line because he has money.  On the other hand there many more men born to chaos and misgivings none of their own making and we see these men as the scum of the earth. Our birth is a thing none control yet men like Donald Trump are treated as successful and seen as people to look up too. When in truth all they did was be born.

 

  But that isn't the true sickness of man to me. What I find truly appalling is when men look upon the misfortunes of other men and say it is the work of God that they suffer. How could you in your right mind think such a thing? So it is God that causes babies to die in war? Because everyone knows how deserving babies are of death. What kind of gods do you believe in? You believe in a God that would make people suffer for some hidden reason known only to him or her? How sick would that god have to be?

  We see a man living in a cardboard box and how quick we are to forget we all live under God's grace. Our hearts are quickly filled with contempt for men we don't even know, simply because we have been taught to hate the poor. The funny part of that is many of us are poor so in truth we hate ourselves. We never stop to think what hardships may have leaded that man whom we are judging to be in such a state. For all we know he could have suffered a great lost in his life or been the victim of tragedy.

 

  Funny how we want the compassion of others when we fall down but we are unwilling to do the same for others. How easy it become to forget all of the wonderful people God sent to aid you in your success once you have become successful. This brings me back to my question on true success and what it really means to be successful. Time for me to close out but before I do I have a few more things to say about success and what I feel about the subject.

  For me success has little to do with the world and my personal accomplishment. To me a man can't be truly successful if he lives without love and compassion for the suffering of others. That man to me is the greatest failure in life because he has lived without love and care in his life. How can one be seen as successful if his heart is empty? You may own a bigger house and drive the best cars. You may have money and live in so called high places and still be as poor as that man who live in the box by the freeway.

 

The true measure of success is not what a man has in his pocket but what he has in his heart is the thing that gives him his true worth. We all would be better served in this world if we measured men correctly. If only we would use our own minds to see men as children of God and weigh their success by the content of their character. The world would be a much better place to live. Then we could all enjoy the true fruits of life and success. That was my take on success. Now what's yours?