Recently, I was sitting at the gate in the Tampa, Florida airport waiting to board a flight to Norfolk. I looked to my right and noticed a book in a lady’s hand. I looked closer to see the name of the book. It was Darren Hardy’s The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success. While I did not ask her why she was reading the book, I am not surprised that anyone would be reading that book to help one to learn more about how to succeed financially. Times are challenging on the financial front.
Darren Hardy built a company to more than $50 million by the age of twenty-seven. He definitely has something to say about making money that is probably worth listening to. Yet, while we alert our attention to brilliant entrepreneurs like Hardy, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and others, let’s not forget that money is fleeting. Material achievements are complementary to true success when their foundations are enduring. But material gain does not define success. Hope, joy, peace, and love are the essence of true success, resulting from an underpinning of godly standards.
When we build our lives on the Lord, we position ourselves for holistic success. I was deeply touched by a Facebook post that my youngest brother, D. Arcelious Harris, recently posted. He wrote, “I’ve learned to stop … chasing my ambitions to become whatever and whomever God has blessed me to see myself as.”[i] Importantly, chasing ambitions without insight into what God has for us leads to an exercise of futility. But there is great fulfillment in seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Material success can only then be properly added (Ref. Matthew 6:33).
[i]. D. Arcelious Harris, Facebook Post, March 9, 2014.
