Luke 12:16-20
¹⁶And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive.
¹⁷And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’
¹⁸Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”‘
²⁰But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’
Illustration
The New Testament shows us two pictures of success and failure.
- The first picture is the parable of 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.” But he died before he could enjoy his wealth.
The caption under this picture is: “The Failure That Looked Like Success.” - The other picture, the companion picture, 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 inspires us, or permeates us with a feeling or quality.
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 a failure, than a failure that looks like a success.
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