Investigating the Bible: Keys to success

Comedian Carol Burnett should like the Willamette Valley. Throughout her long career, she believed rain always brought her success. Starting in grammar school, whenever she took a test and it was raining, she earned an A. Much later, when she auditioned for a new gig and it was raining, she got it. When nervous about an opening night at some club, and it rained, she wrote in her memoir, “I would calm down, and things would go fine. It just made me feel good.” Superstitions about circumstances or personal articles are common. The Bible offers God’s guidance for success in all our endeavors.

King Solomon taught that success starts with trusting God completely. The result: straight paths or, as we might say, getting green lights. (Proverbs 3:5-6). Next, live with humility and carefully. “Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body, and refreshment to your bones.” (Proverbs 3:7-8, New American Standard Bible used throughout). Arrogance, rage, getting drunk or high on non-prescription drugs, gambling or laziness all come too easily. Resisting those with God’s help brings healthy energy.

Giving back to God is Solomon’s third guidance. “Honor the Lord from your wealth, and from the first of all your produce; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.” (Proverbs 3: 9-10). Before irrigation in Israel, farmland and grass for grazing depended on rain. Average rainfall in Jerusalem ranges from 14 to 21 inches per year, less than half of that in the wetter parts of Oregon

God’s providential hand today often is the right job, the right business decision, or a financial windfall. George Müller, born 1805, was a Christian evangelist and director of orphanages in Britain. During his lifetime, he provided care for more than 10,000 orphans, all without ever asking for a donation or taking an offering; he asked God and then he gave back to God. He wrote in his autobiography: “The child of God must be willing to be a channel through which God’s abundant blessings flow. This channel is narrow and shallow at first, yet some of the waters of God’s bounty can pass through. If we cheerfully yield ourselves to this purpose, the channel becomes wider and deeper, allowing more of the bounty of God to pass through.”

Last, let God discipline. God doesn’t always give “green lights.” “My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord, or loathe His reproof, for whom the Lord loves He reproves, even as a father, the son in whom he delights.” (Proverbs 3:11,12). The New Testament explains this: “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” (Hebrews 12:11).

Helen Keller was born in 1880. She became an inspiration for those with disabilities. However, when she was 19 months old, she contracted what is now thought to be meningitis, losing both her sight and hearing. She became a wild child in her early years, throwing tantrums and objects when she didn’t get her way. When her teacher Anne Sullivan first arrived, she knew Helen’s first problem was no discipline. Her loving father always gave Helen whatever she wanted. Sullivan persuaded the family to let her live alone with Helen in a cottage near the family home. It took two weeks before Helen realized throwing fits didn’t work. She allowed her teacher to spell words on her open hand. After a month, Sullivan ran cold water over Helen’s hand, spelling it, and she wrote in her autobiography, “… somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew that w-a-t-e-r meant the cool something that was flowing over my hand. The living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, set it free!”

David Carlson Pastor (yes, that is his last name, not his profession) lives in Oregon and is a graduate of Bethel Theological Seminary in Minnesota (M.Div., M.Th.).