The New Testament paints two pictures of success and failure. The first picture is the rich man whose crops produced so abundantly that he decided to pull down his barns and build bigger ones, and he said to his soul, "Soul, eat, drink, and have a great time, for tomorrow you die." The caption under this painting is: "The Failure That Looked Like Success." The other painting, the companion painting, is of Jesus dying on the cross, the crown of thorns on his head, his chin drooping against his chest, the crude nails in his hands, and all his friends off somewhere in hiding. The caption under this picture is: "The Success That Looked Like Failure."

We would all like to be successful and fulfilled as persons; it is one of the dreams with which our culture imbues us. But when we listen to Jesus, we realize that success and fulfillment don't really come the way we often expect them to. They aren't the direct result of anything we can do to attain them. Instead, they're a gift from God and they simply happen when we are doing the right things with our lives. In God's eyes it is a whole lot better to be a success that looks like failure than a failure that looks like success.