Success, Failure and the Choice of Christ

This is my Montgomery Advertiser article from February 2009. I am going to try to post all of these over the next few days.


Who won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1983? How about the Best Actor winner from 1991? Can you list the last eight Heisman Trophy winners or a dozen Nobel Laureates?

All of these names represent some very talented people. They were, at one point, at the top of their fields. They were headliners and it seemed that everyone knew who they were and their accomplishments. And then it happened. They slowly faded into memory.

Here are another set of questions. Can you list three teachers who had an impact on your life? How about naming two friends in the last few years, who helped you through a difficult time? What person has recently made you feel appreciated and special?

This second set of questions is much easier to answer. These folks may not be famous, in fact they may not be known outside of your community, but they made a difference in your life. They called you by name and chose to reach out and in the process transformed you in some way.

So why is it that we feel we must do something extraordinary to make a difference or impact those around us? We make it so intricate with multiple hoops to pass through and hurdles to jump. If it’s not big and complicated it must not be worth doing at all. We often believe we must do this or accomplish that in order to have our life matter. We create intricate hurdles that we must conquer on the obstacle course of meaning and merit. We all know those who had life mapped out at an early age-do this by 20, that by 30 and this by 40…and then when life doesn’t meet their dreams suddenly it loses meaning.

I was talking with a friend recently and she mentioned a man who recently had a set back in his career. He had accomplished a great deal and at one time was a headliner in his field. He also had a good marriage and two wonderful children. And yet, he was plagued with feelings of inadequacy and failure because of his recent set back. So much of his identity and what the world told him was valuable was wrapped up in his accomplishments. When compared with those he admired, his work heroes, he had accomplished very little and certainly not what he wanted. I wonder what his children would say about that.

I think of Naaman, the big shot military hero who was a headliner with one big problem. He has leprosy. He finds out about the prophet Elisha and heads off for a cure. Elisha isn’t exactly what Naaman expects and the cure he gives insults Naaman’s sense of importance. Elisha doesn’t even come out of his house, but rather, tells Naaman through a messenger to wash in the River Jordan seven times in order to be restored. Naaman complains mightily about the simple cure, the measly river and Elisha, but eventually, on the urging of a servant, goes and washes in the river and is made clean. (2 Kings 5:1-19). Naaman found healing in an unexpected way from an unlikely source. It was not a king or other headliner of his day. It was a simple cure from a simple man.

We are often like Naaman. We scan the horizon for the big cure, the headliner or the grand scheme. If it is not big in the eyes and by the norms of the world somehow it isn’t effective or valuable. We look at ourselves the same way. If we are not this or that we can’t touch a life. We forget that our children, our friends, our families don’t care if we a headliner, they simply want our friendship, our touch, our hearts.

Jesus reaches out to us this day and says to us what he said to the leper in Mark’s Gospel before touching him with his healing hand, “I do choose.” (Mark 1:41). He chooses us and gives us healing, sustenance and hope in order to use us in mighty ways. It is through Jesus Christ that we make a difference in everything that we do large and small, success and failure.