1715 Fame and Success

BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

Today, we continue our search for meaning and fulfillment in life.

So far, we’ve found that trying to understand everything isn’t the answer. We can never understand the things of God. It’s not our place to know everything, it’s our place to trust there’s a bigger picture we cannot yet see.

We’ve also found that all the fun in the world will still leave us feeling empty. Why? Because things simply aren’t perpetually fun. Life is like the changing seasons, and some seasons are hard winters or harsh summers. That’s just life. The good news is, seasons always change and hard times don’t last forever. If all we’re ever searching for is pleasure, we’re missing the point and left unfulfilled. Honey, you can be sitting on the most gorgeous beach in the world in the bikini body of your dreams, and you could still be absolutely miserable. (Where are the girls that would at least like to give it a try?)

So now, we look at the third thing we often seek for meaning and fulfillment in life. What we can do, what we can build, what we can get and who we can become?

And this is where most of us get completely tripped up. We think our life purpose is wrapped up in what we do. We think we are defined by what we’ve built. Our quest becomes focused on what we can get. Then what we’re left with is who we’ve become.

Listen, and listen closely, THAT JOB WILL NEVER BRING YOU LASTING FULFILLMENT. THERE’S NOT A SINGLE HOUSE, CAR, SURGERY, TOY OR WARDROBE YOU COULD EVER BUY THAT WILL FILL THE HOLE YOU’RE TRYING TO FILL. Inevitably, success, money, and fame all lead to the same place … emptiness without something more.

And that is what Solomon found. In his quest for meaning and fulfillment, he became the king, acquired all the things, met every goal and conquered every battle, only to come to the same conclusion as before. Meaningless. It was all meaningless.

Ecclesiastes 2: 4-11, “I tried to find meaning by building huge homes for myself and by planting beautiful vineyards. I made gardens and parks, filling them with all kinds of fruit trees. I built reservoirs to collect the water to irrigate my many flourishing groves. I owned large herds and flocks, more than any of the kings who had lived in Jerusalem before me. I collected great sums of silver and gold, the treasure of many kinds and provinces. I hired wonderful singers and had many beautiful concubines. I had everything a man could ever desire! So I became greater than all who had lived in Jerusalem before me, and my wisdom never failed me. Anything I wanted, I could take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors. BUT as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless – like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.”

Can you imagine being in a position of being able to have anything you wanted? Can you imagine everything being done for you and never having to wash a dish or clean a toilet again? Can you imagine everyone knowing and loving you? Sounds absolutely fantastic, doesn’t it?

This is precisely what Solomon has. He is the top of the top with the best of the best. He wants for absolutely nothing. He has achieved every goal he set and anything else he decides he wants to do, it will undoubtedly be done. And yet it was totally meaningless. In complete desperation, he sits on the throne he had worked so hard for, looks out over all of his accomplishments and successes and declares, “there’s nothing really worthwhile anywhere.”

College girls, you think if you just get that degree, then you will be happy. Hmmm, I can’t tell you how many people have a very pricey diploma hanging on their wall that has done absolutely nothing for them.

Or the sheer number of friends I have who got the degree, then got the job, and they hate the job.

Or, they love the job, but the job has sucked the life out of them and they have no time for anything else.

Or, the number of women I know who all they wanted was a family … now that family is all they complain about. That husband! Those kids! Ughhhhh.

Your purpose is not found in the career. Your meaning is not found in your family. Your fulfillment will never come from what you have done, what you have created, or what you have earned. And here’s why … at the end of the day, you still have that God sized hole in you that only he can fill. Eternity has still been planted in your heart and only an eternal perspective on this life will fulfill you.

It’s always heartbreaking to hear the news come out of Hollywood that then next superstar, movie star or rock star has taken their own life. People who had worked so hard and had it all. What more could they have possibly wanted to make them happy? My friends, it all comes back to that God sized hole within each of us. The more we have of everything else, the more apparent that God hole becomes. The more we fill our lives with everything else, the more we long for what we are missing.

This life, regardless of success, accomplishments, fame, and new really pretty shiny things, always goes back to feeling empty without God. There’s so much more than this, and your heart knows it!

There’s this wild thing known as a ‘Goal Hole’. Have you heard about it? It’s the shockingly unfulfilled feeling you have AFTER achieving your goal. No one tells you that after you achieve what you’ve been working so hard for, you feel disappointingly empty. No one tells you the high of success is quickly followed by an even lower low of un-fulfillment.

I learned of goal hole after running my first marathon. For 6 months I had pushed harder than ever before. I had gone from the girl who had learned to walk again after having a stroke, the girl who even pre-stroke had never run a mile in her life … to the girl who would run 26.2 miles and cross her first finish line. Training consumed me. I hated it and I loved it. My body transformed. My mind transformed. But after that race, after all the news articles and the 5 minutes of fame … I was still me. It’s just now, I was me without anything to work toward.

That’s what they don’t tell you … when you accomplish everything you’re working so hard for, you’re left wondering what’s missing. That good feeling doesn’t last like you thought it would. That high comes crashing down.

Within a few months of that first marathon, I was unable to run 5 miles. For real, a year later I had lost everything I had worked for and I ended up worse than I had begun. Talk about disappointment.

Even without a marathon, I bet it’s happened for you too. You’ve had success, then that success failed to give you everything you had hoped. It was short lived and led to disappointment. Disappointment that says, “Why did I work so hard for this? Is this really all there is?”

They say the cure for goal hole is to have another goal to work toward immediately after you achieve your success. I’ve tried that too. Let me tell you what that led to for me … BURN OUT!

We can become a completely obsessed, never fulfilled machine in search of the next thing that will make us temporarily happy, and eventually become a miserable soul who is missing the point.

You know why we get burned out? Because we were not created to just go from one goal to the next. We were created for more than temporary successes and momentary accomplishments. We were created for more than material possessions or earthly praises. We were created for ETERNITY!

Ecclesiastes 3:11, “God has planted eternity in the human heart.” That’s your God sized hole! And only an eternal focus brings the fulfillment and meaning you desire. EVER!

So, this life you have been given … yes, live it and live it well. Waste nothing. Enjoy the journey. Do great things. Get better and better. But never forget it’s all sooooo much bigger than that. There’s soooooo much more than this. Everything we accomplish in this life is emptiness without an eternal perspective and impact.

Solomon had temporarily fallen away from God in his quest to have it all, but in the end he comes back with this realization. There is more to this life and it’s only found in God. Without him, it’s all meaningless. With him, nothing is wasted.

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