Success ought to breed success, but it doesn't always work that way. In fact, success has no greater danger than itself. When Roy Tarpley entered the National Basketball Association, it was assumed that Dallas could build a team around him. Experts say he would have made the American "dream team" for the Barcelona Olympics if he had fulfilled his obvious talent. Instead, when he should have been at the top of his game, he was not even in the NBA. "My problem, "Tarpley said, "was with success. Every time I was successful, I had to go out and party" (The Plain Deale, March 24, 1993).

The problem with success is success. This reminds us again of the importance of godly character. Success has within it the seed of failure and even of self-destruction. The more success a person achieves—including the most honorable and praiseworthy success—the more one needs the correction of the Holy Spirit. I'm very sure God wants us to succeed. It is better that we become saints than corrupters, better that we use God's generous gifts rather than letting them lie idle or perverting them to unworthy purposes. God, the ultimate Source of success, would like for us to succeed and to learn from each success. But that calls for sensitive students, who never feel that they are above correction and reproof. In other words, the greatest lesson success can teach us is the humility that makes us keep on learning.