By Robbins Jesuraj.
Success is sweet and delightful, but it can turn out to be daunting and degrading in our lives, if we do not handle it well.
“Success is more difficult to handle than failure” are the words of Ravi Zacharias which affirm this truth. While there are many resources and helps available in our time on how to handle failure, where can we go to learn on how to handle success?
I believe, Jesus is our ultimate role model in handling success. His life on earth was filled with so many success stories of awesome miracles, large gatherings, many appreciations, huge followers and finally the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But Jesus dealt with all of this at ease.
Jesus was always focused on his end goal and purposively walked off from early elevations (John 6:15). He was often critical of false recognitions, as he weighed on the intentions of people (Luke 18:18, John 2:24). Jesus would never allow flattery to go unchecked. Jesus never trumpeted about His success stories, while He allowed natural dissemination of the message (Matt 16:20). At the same time, he did not always run away from success, especially if it is fulfilling God’s plan for His life (Luke 19:40). He celebrated success, but never lingered on with it and moved on to achieve his next milestone (Mark 11:11).
Above all, He never allowed success to be distilled on to only himself, rather He created successors in disciples and empowered them to carry on His mission (Matt 28:16-20). What a way to handle success!