Meaning of Success

From Self to Others; The Meaning of Success
By Dr. Betsy Joy B. Tan, Vice President for Academic Affairs 

  

What do you want to become in a year or a few years from now? Who do you want to become in a year or a few years from now?  Two different sets of question; two different sets of answers! Which would be easier to answer?

 

I am sure you can easily give me an answer to the first question. Quite conveniently, majority — if not all of you would say: CPA — certified public accountant. The first question after all solicits an answer that can easily be pinned on your choice of a degree program. It brings to mind the reason why you are in that program, what brought you here to Silliman University. What brought you to the department of accountancy in your respective college, university.

 

The second question might take you a longer time to formulate an answer.  . . because it digs deeper  into a position or profession that can be filled regardless of race, religion, credentials, and status in life. The second question leads you to bring to mind a face — that of people who matter to you, who have made a mark in your life, who truly love and care for you, whose lives you want to emulate. 

 

The scripture this morning is from Jeremias 29: 11-14. It reads: 

 

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.[a] I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

 

In the text, you can rightly point out the Lord’s graciousness, His promise of redemption, His unwavering love for us. It is a reassuring text as it wraps us in a blanket  like a child in need of warmth. It reaffirms how He sees over us – above and beyond our imperfections and allows for us to be closer to Him and be blessed with His presence in our life. 

 

The text, however, provides an idea of our relationship with the Lord. “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart…I will be found by you,” says our biblical text. What does this mean to you? It rightfully puts premium on our Christian faith, on the extent to which we seek Him out — not only in bad but also in good times. It thrusts us to a reflection on His divine providence, of how, when we only reach out to Him. 

 

How does your theme jib with the scripture reading? Your theme is “Sharing success beyond borders.” 

 

While it is true that the text characterizes who the Lord is to us, it also sends across a message about how we are to be the same to others, in the spirit that we are created in His own likeness and image. It hinges on success far from material things but on a relational value. It highlights the role of relationships in our life — a relationship with God that is reflected in our relationship with others, with the people around us. 

 

A year or two or more from now, you will become a Certified Public Accountant. You will be among the more respected professionals who  serve as guardians of truth and protectors of integrity . . .   as accounting figures can easily be manipulated. You will join the ranks of Sillimanian CPAs with unbending principles born of personal conviction and fear in the Lord. Yours will be a profession that can in one way or another break or make a person or an institution. At that point in your life, when you practice your profession, you will confront yourself more than ever with the challenge of defining true success. 

 

What really is success to you? Is it endless? Is it limitless? When can you say that you are successful? When can you say that you have not been successful? 

 

Success by modern times can easily be gauged by standards, metrics, instruments. It is something that is more gleaned from the tangibles — the properties in your possession, the power that you wield, the number of people that you have control over. 

 

But both your theme and the scripture reading calls for you to break these standards and instead, appreciate success as a matter of the heart and spirit. Success then ceases to become a game of the mind — what you can easily see, hear or smell. It goes beyond that, elevating it into an opportunity for you to put premium on how in modest ways you plant a seed of inspiration and hope in others; how you bring out the best in the worst and most desperate of people around you; how you see yourself for how others have been able to see the Lord in and through you. 

 

The scripture reading contextualizes who we ought to be and from whom we really are. While it can be easily interpreted as how the Lord is to us, it equally echoes who we are in the context of what we ought to do and  we ought to be, given our being the Lord’s creation. 

 

As Accountancy students, you need to create a balance sheet where debit — the giving of yourself — is as important as credit — the building up of your relationship with the Lord and the people around you. While wrong in the accounting standards, view a deficit in terms of the extra miles that you have walked in order to hold the hands of others, helping them rise up and lead a life close to Christ. 

 

“Success beyond borders” is simply about you realizing that your potential is best defined not necessarily by your qualifications but how you become a channel through which others — beyond yourself and your own goals and ambitions — are able to live life and lead it in accordance to God’s will. 

 

Who do you want to become? May you see the Lord’s image in yourself and in others. 

 

Amen.