When Success Still Doesn’t Satisfy
Scottie Sheffler is the #1 ranked golfer in the world and has been for the last 147 weeks. A reporter asked him about how he views his wins and his losses and he responded in a profound way:
“… it feels like you work your whole life to celebrate winning a tournament for a few minutes… It's fulfilling from a sense of accomplishment, but it's not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart. There's a lot of people that make it to what they thought was going to fulfill them in life. And then you get there…you get to number one in the world, and they're, like, what's the point?”
Many of us don’t struggle with loving the wrong things as much as we struggle with loving the right things too much. And when do this we think things like “if I only could have X then I would be happy,” “I just need to get married then I will be fulfilled,” “if I become the boss then people will think I really made it.” And then you get it, and you think, “what’s the point?” Because idolatry is “disordered love.”
When I love my wife more than the Lord, it messes up my entire life. When she possesses the throne of my heart and I live my life for her approval, love, acceptance, etc., then I place a burden on her that she cannot bear. And then when she fails me as my god (which she inevitably will), my disdain for her is intense, which erodes our relationship.
But if the Lord is the center of my life and I seek to honor Him, look to Scripture as my guide, live for His glory, etc., then everything else in my life falls into place. He will not fail me (Deut 31:8, Heb 13:5), I cast my burdens on Him which He gladly bears (Ps 55:22, 1 Pt 5:7), and when I fail “His power is made perfect in MY weakness (2 Cor 12:9).” My marriage is blessed as I, and Molly, seek the Lord’s will over our own. A couple can never have each other as their ultimate end. They need to properly see their marriage as a means to a greater end outside of their union. Or as C.S. Lewis puts it, “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”
God says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15). But it is not as simple to say something like, “I spend 10 minutes in prayer a day and 8 hours at work, so that must mean that I love my job more than the Lord.” Or to think something like, “My mortgage is $200,000, and I have never given that much to church, therefore I must not love the Lord.” This is to over-simplify the Lord’s commands, misunderstand His common grace, and compare ourselves with others. And the game of comparisons is never won.
Jesus tells us that, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Mt 6:24). This is what happens when we commit idolatry. We begin to love the things of the world, and in turn, start to despise God. It’s a subtle but devastating trap, one that entices us into the snares of “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life” (1 John 2:16).
What we must think is, how do I “love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength”? And how do I “glorify God in all that I do”?
Scheffler is an outspoken believer in Christ, and just before that answer he mentioned that the only books he really reads are a “devotional and his Bible.” If golf was his ultimate purpose, then everything in his life would be disordered. But he understands that though he is the best golfer in the world, has earned millions of dollars, and won a bunch of tournaments…none of it fulfills the “deepest places of his heart.”
“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” (1 John 5:21)
Pastor Caleb
“It is a fearful sin to take God’s name in vain. The name of God is sacred, and it is profane to use it lightly, rashly, or irreverently.”