SUCCESS?

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 

Joshua 1:8 New International Version (NIV)

Sounds easy, right? Simple formula. What does it actually mean to be prosperous? What standards do you use to measure success? I well remember memorizing Psalm One in the sixth grade. (Yes, I’m one of those older people who remember the Bible reading as an integral part of opening exercises in public school.) Capsulized, it says: “Blessed is the person who delights in the teachings of the Lord. He succeeds in everything he does.” That doesn’t really help me understand the real meaning of success.

In the musical, “Fiddler on the Roof,” Tevye sings a song about what he would do if he were a rich man. Here’s the part I like best. 

“If I were rich, I'd have the time that I lack

To sit in the synagogue and pray.

And maybe have a seat by the Eastern wall.

And I'd discuss the holy books with the learned men, several hours every day.

That would be the sweetest thing of all.”   

For Tevye, prosperity – success - is closeness to God. Learning the Scriptures and communicating with God through prayer is the ultimate gift, better than any material riches. In today’s world we are reeling from the results of a virus, compounded by racial tension. Among other things, this has hit our economy and made us all scramble for ways to return to the world we knew before February 2020 changed everything. Add to that the recent tariffs that have resulted in raising the prices of goods, foreign and domestic. Yikes! 

What have we learned? Perhaps we turned to prayer more than before. Maybe we’ve examined what does and does not validate true faith. It’s possible that time for introspection along with different ways of relating to our families revealed things we’d like to change permanently.

The New Testament says this: “I can guarantee again that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom.” (Matt. 19:24)

That contradicts a lot of the Old Testament teachings. 

One of our well-known hymns puts it this way:

Cure thy children's warring madness,

bend our pride to thy control;

shame our wanton, selfish gladness,

rich in things and poor in soul.

Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,

lest we miss thy kingdom's goal.

Read that again and let that be our prayer today. Amen.



                                                                               Sue Uzelmeier