How Your Success Can Destroy You!
Are you destroying your dreams? Are you killing the deep purpose that drives you?
Why do I ask? Because our culture is very focused on inspiring us to find out passion and to live out dreams, but there is a very dangerous turn that can take if we aren’t careful. A turn that can end up blinding us and focusing us on creating pain for others.
See, with every purpose that sharpens our hearts and minds are the daily practices of living it out. As each day happens, and we put that passion into practice pretty soon the practices become a pleasure to perform. This is a good thing. With good habits in our lives we are setting ourselves up for success. That is until the habits become the meaning.
Examples?
Have you seen religion twisted into something not compassionate, loving, just or full of mercy - that’s an example.
Have you seen seen an industry with wide success suddenly come crashing down, even suing it’s own ideal customers - that’s an example.
Have you spoken angrily with one of your children because they’ve distracted you from your work - that’s an example.
Have you heard someone demonize people of another culture out of fear and justify their imprisonment, prejudice, or restriction of freedoms - that’s an example.
Have you ever seen a church leader spend most of their interviews, online writing, and comments about the church in criticism of others instead of the using their influence to create justice, mercy and faithfulness in people - that is an example.
Whatever you believe about Jesus, he had some very wise things to say to leaders dealing with this kind of self-destructive blindness. And it points out a blind spot every single one of us is capable of gaining.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees (leaders), hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You act as blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!” - Jesus
These leaders Jesus was speaking to were very diligent in their religious practices. It was the effort of their entire life to observe and teach on these practices. Jesus isn’t saying the practices aren’t important - he is pointing out that by losing sight of the meaning or the weightier matters, the practices were actually destroying what they loved.
Passion for the practices with out focus on their meaning causes them to become destructive and manipulative.
Or if I was a mega-church pastor I’d phrase it “The Practices without their Purpose cause Pain.” (you like that?) :)
This applies to anything you are leading. In a business you have the weightier matters of living your passion, selling your product, valuing your customers, and putting the best business model in place to accomplish your goals. Over time the business model and product become endearing and when culture, your customers or other things change you actually start to attack and demonize them instead of changing the practices of your work and focusing on the weightier matters.
In a church you become so tied to a certain style of music, a certain translation of the bible, a certain preacher’s style, even a certain style of dress that when things change you start to demonize the people and culture that represent the change. Instead of realizing the purpose of being the church is justice, mercy and faithfulness, and that your charter is to serve, to be last, to put others before yourself. You’ve let these practices become your meaning because you lost sight.
So, how do we avoid it?
That’s a personal question to sort through. Personally (I’ve not figured this out, this post has inspired me to put these things into action) I am finding mentors to feed into my life and expose blind spots. I’m engaging daily in the books and ideas that I’ve found bring the purpose and meaning to my life (for me its the Bible and a couple other books). And I’m going to journal and put into place some consistent times to remember my top ideals, and pursue serving others as much as I can.
Humility is the best weapon against this natural tendency in us.
As much as I want to live my life to the highest standards of success I can obtain; I refuse to do so at the sacrifice of the very purpose that was it’s goal - and the spreading of pain that change in me would bring.
