An Unsuccessful Life
By Ana Mullan
(From the July - September 2021 issue of VOX)
How do we define success? According to the dictionary success is, “attaining wealth, prosperity and/or fame.”
Well from the world’s point of view my husband and I are not exactly “successful”. We don’t own a house, a car or a TV, and we don’t even own the social enterprise that we started a few years ago. We have chosen to live simply though we consider ourselves rich in many ways. If somebody from a financial company assessed our decisions and our way of viewing life, they would put us in the category of ‘unsuccessful’. However, as a Jesus follower I think the label fits as well, because we don’t measure our lives by human statistics but by Jesus’ way of living life.
“As a Jesus follower I think the label fits as well, because we don’t measure our lives by human statistics but by Jesus’ way of living life.”
Why am I thinking about success and what is considered a successful life? I started to think about it because sadly, I read once again about a Christian leader’s failure in relation to abusive sexual behaviour towards women in a US ministry and another incident of leadership abuse in the UK. As I was discussing this with my husband, he said to me, “they bought into success.” That is what got me thinking.
How do we measure success within Christian circles? A friend who lives in the US said that many who want to start new congregations want to have a big church quite quickly, publish a book and a blog, and have financial security. It sounds to me something closer to being the CEO of a company than the leader of a movement.
We tend to cling to idols, to famous speakers. We follow one for a season and another for another season. We want the formula that will make it possible for us to have success. We get excited when Justin Bieber gets baptised or when we can label an artist, or sportsperson, as ‘Christian’. But then, as in some cases, they fall from grace and we become disappointed and start asking questions.
I was listening to an English Dominican priest last night and something stayed in my mind from what he shared, “when Christianity leaves God out, it becomes authoritarian, abusive and controlling.” And he must know that very well since the Catholic Church has had its fair share of scandals. But those scandals are not confined to the Catholic Church.
Success and power have corrupted many leaders but it is sad to hear when that same mentality has entered the church. When we start thinking about how big our church is, about our budget or how famous we are, then we will just be reflecting exactly what the secular world does; there is no difference.
I am reading a book at the moment about the first Christians; the ones who lived during the first three centuries. They lived in a constant tension, knowing what was happening within their own culture and being prepared to model something that was totally different. They didn’t have many famous people joining their ranks. They were the poor, the illiterate and the slaves.
For wealthy people, joining the group meant to be ostracised by society. These people knew that when they entered the house where they were going to meet, they were entering a different world. A world where everybody was equal; where slaves and free were treated with the same dignity. The slaves who had no voice in the households where they worked, had a voice in the meetings. The widows, orphans, and those forgotten by society knew that they were going to be looked after.
What training did they receive? They went over The Sermon on the Mount, until it became second nature; until they loved their enemies in the way Jesus did. In a society where to love your enemies was considered to be weak, they showed how to live by a different reality. They didn’t do ‘evangelism.’ They did not pressurise anybody to join them because that would have put them at great risk. Many died. However, they lived such a distinctive life that their neighbours were curious and wanted to join.
There was one thing that was very clear: they did not seek success, they sought the Kingdom of God and they were able to say, as Cyprian and other early Christians said: “We do not speak great things but we live them.” They were certainly successful but not in the way the dictionary defines success.
Ana Mullan is from Argentina but has lived in Ireland for 35 years, the last 18 in Dublin. She is an artist, a spiritual director, retreat facilitator and an enthusiastic grandmother.
