Real Success and Failure

Some seem to be successful in this world and others appear to have failed. For this reason people have come to think of success and failure as confined to this world. Heaven and hell have become for them things of this world, not the next.

But this is no more than an illusion. Real success and failure lie in the next life. Many who consider themselves successful in this world will be shocked to find that the reality is far from what they thought. They will discover there who are the losers and who are the winners; they will see who understood the reality of life and who was taken in by mere appearances; they will realize who forged ahead in the race of life and who was left behind; it will be evident who put his talents to the best possible use and who wasted them on the fleeting enjoyments of this world; it will become clear who has attained to true honour and who has been disgraced.

Failure in its true sense is failure in eternity, and likewise true success is success in eternity. Opportunism and expediency earn one honour and status in this world, but they will be of no use in the Hereafter. People who gained worldly honour in this way will find themselves quite unfit for honour in the everlasting world of God. They will be like an old-fashioned, manual worker, who is considered skillful in an agrarian society, but whose skills are of no use in a modern technological age.