The Path to Success

Graduation season is upon us. My social media feeds are full of pics posted by proud parents and grandparents. High school and college graduations are viewed as significant milestones in our culture. These graduations often prompt physical moves, expectations of increased independence, and a refocusing and reprioritizing of daily activities.

Graduations often serve as highly visible spiritual turning points in the lives of graduates. Our cultural expectation is that with each graduation comes an increase in focus on one’s path to success, often defining success in terms of social status and material wealth.

High school graduates who have had little choice concerning church involvement or who have never engaged a community of faith apart from their parents, may find it easy to squeeze church, and even God, out of the routines of their newfound independence.

On the other hand, college graduates, who may have strayed from God during those first tastes of independence, may have a renewed interest or openness to a relationship with Christ as they reprioritize life and consider longer term interests.

As family, friends, and the Body of Christ, our message to recent graduates should be simple –

The pursuit of status and material wealth apart from Jesus Christ is never ending. The peace, joy, satisfaction, and sense of fulfillment that comes from worldly status and material wealth, without a relationship with the Lord, will always be short-lived and require the pursuit of more.

Eventually, one becomes consumed with such a relentless yearning for more and will find no space within such a life to prioritize a genuine relationship with Jesus, who refuses to be treated as a pawn or genie in a bottle in our self-serving pursuits. This is why the rich young ruler in Mark 10 walked away from the Lord sad, and why Jesus responded with “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:23). Wealth, itself, is not the challenge.

Yet, the inevitable, consuming, never-ending pursuit of our status and meaning through the acquisition of wealth keeps us from putting Jesus first in our lives.

We have each fallen into this trap to some degree. Just ask yourself,

what is it, that if Jesus asked me to leave it behind today, I’d sadly walk away from the Lord while clinging to it?

This is why Jesus told his disciples after encountering the rich young ruler - “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27). The path to success begins and ends with Jesus Christ. He walks the path to success with us. He gives us our status and meaning, apart from what we may or may not acquire. When we start the path with Jesus, and we walk the path with Jesus, we know who we are and why we’re here, and we “receive a hundred times as much in this present age and in the age to come, eternal life” (Mark 10:30).

So, what does the path of success look like for a recent graduate?

And how does one find such a path for himself?

One finds a way to truly benefit another and does so. Then he repeats it. If it’s rewarding and it’s sustainable, he has found his path to success. He may deepen his capacity through training, education, or experience. As his efforts evolve, so should his rewards. It’s a path, not a destination. If he is truly seeking to benefit others and he’s aware of the Lord walking the path with him, and he seeks to honor the Lord’s presence as he goes, he’ll find himself living a successful life.