How do you measure success? Houses? Cars? Influence? Power? A full bank account? Normally mankind judges success by what brings pleasure. We buy stuff because we think it will make us happy and make us look better to others around us.

Solomon was king of Israel during one of it’s richest periods in history. He was also the wisest man who lived. According to man’s criteria, Solomon should have considered himself über-successful. During his life, he discarded his relationship with God to serve other gods and find “real pleasure.”

I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself.” And behold, it too was futility. I said of laughter, “It is madness,” and of pleasure, “What does it accomplish?” -Ecclesiastes 2:1-2

What was his opinion of the pleasures that should have declared his success? Folly and madness. His reasoning was simple yet profound. All the pleasures and the work required to obtain them amounted to nothing because the stuff did not last.

When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge and skill, then he gives his legacy to one who has not labored with them. This too is vanity and a great evil. For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving with which he labors under the sun? Because all his days his task is painful and grievous; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity.

-Ecclesiastes 2:21-23

As we have seen on Sunday mornings, the Israelites rightly believed that true wisdom came from God with the ultimate goal of a right relationship with Him. Outside of a relationship with God, success and contentment in life is akin to taming the wind, pointless and impossible. Solomon appears to finally remember this.

The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.

-Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

True success is rooted in the Creator. This fact has not changed in the near 3,000 years since Solomon ran his famous test. The reason is the same as well. Enduring success will stand after our physical lives are over. The only success that lasts is our relationship with our Creator because it will last eternally. The Apostle Paul reiterated godly success when he wrote to Timothy.

But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. -1 Timothy 6:6-8

Everything else is merely trying to tame the wind.