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Enough - Episode 5: Enough Success. “He climbed the ladder his whole life only to get to the top and realize it was leaning against the wrong wall.” We all like to poke fun at the people at the top, but we also really want to be like them. Success is a good thing. But success at what? And how much is enough? If you get some, will you quit? Or if you got that much, why not a little more, and a little more, and... We will give you a peek into this struggle between your appetite for success and your contentment that might help you achieve it.

Episode 5: Enough Success

It’s easy to get sucked into success - who doesn’t want to succeed? And it’s easy to point your finger and shake your head at people who just want success in money, fame and power. But enough success isn’t an unimportant issue, and defining it for yourself, and learning how to find it is important, hard, and unending. 

This is simple, clear and true.

Cheap success is seductive, and real success is important.

Take a few minutes and write your answers to these two questions.

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Listen to Eric’s story of trying to understand success and how he was learning what ‘enough success’ might be about and the complexity that goes with it.

Jesus’ warnings about seeking material success. (read the whole section, Luke 12.13-34)

“Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these… Do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying.”       Luke 12.25,27,29 

And the parable of the rich man whose crops were abundant so he tore down all his old barns to build bigger, newer ones, and then says to himself, “‘Soul, you have laid up more than enough to provide for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you.’” Luke 12.16ff

Something to consider:  Success is not bad and success is hard work. What are examples of success that others have worked hard to pursue which has made the world, or your life, better? What are examples of when you have worked hard to succeed at something that was good for the world?

Jesus also called us to strive for success in what does matter. That includes “sacrifice.”

“If anyone wants to become my follower (that is; be about what I am about – be successful in creating the world God sees), let them deny themselves and take up their cross and  follow me.”         Matthew 16.24

And then there are the many versions of…

“Whoever wants to be first must be last, and servant of all.”            Mark 9.35

Something to consider: 

“It’s easy to fail at life by succeeding at an endeavor.” Greg Meyer

Questions to help navigate the treacherous waters of Enough Success & Sacrifice.

  • Who will benefit from your success?

Only you? Only others? Others, but you also get something from giving to others? 

  • What type of success is it? 

    • Is it achievement and acquisition oriented? That doesn’t make this success bad, it asks what you will do with it?

    • Is it success that flows from your values, your passions, and reinforces your integrity?  Even noble forms of success can be murky for understanding what enough of it is.

  • Who pays the cost?

Success isn’t only hard, it comes at a cost. Who will pay that? If you do, does that impact others around you? Are there others paying the cost of your success? If so, what does that say about the purpose and value of your success?

Something to consider: 

“There are many things you can be successful at, but you cannot be successful at everything.”

Limits! 

There are limits to what you can achieve and limits to what you should try to achieve.

Limits are part of enough. Can you recognize and receive them gracefully? Or will they always taunt you, aggravate you, leave you hungry for what you haven’t achieved? Evidence that you have not yet done enough.

Limits can be a sign, not that you failed, but that you need to look for better opportunities.

Limits can be a sign that you should look around you for help.

Something to consider:

Is it possible that enough success is a lot bigger and more wonderful than we think it is? And that it is also a lot simpler than we make it?

“Unless you become like children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  Jesus, Matthew 18.3

Listen to Sarah’s story about learning that the success she once thought she could control had to be retooled with the pregnancy and birth of her daughter, Aadrika. 

It is more blessed to give than to receive.    Acts 20.35

or

One is more likely to find enough through giving than through receiving.    Greg’s version

The BIG Question this week!

What if you fulfilled yourself by pouring out, not in?

“Enough is a crazy labyrinth that is easy to get lost in. Define it for yourself. Choose the enough that is meaningful & fulfilling for you – the real you – because if you don’t, it will make you do, be and have things that don’t matter, and it will do it at the expense of what does.”

More Resources…

Group Discussion Guide: Click HERE.