Reflections on Celebrating Success (Br Gregory Chan)

The secular world has a very unique way of celebrating success – they peg it to material achievement. They use the imagery of “height” to convey to us the “dizzying heights of success.” The Property Market speaks of “high-end living” and “the height of living” to convey to us this exclusivity, this privilege of living it up. Even universities are not immune from “scaling the heights of knowledge.” The commercial world depicts this in high-rise mega corporate offices, in sophisticated boardrooms and plush executive suites. “Ahh! This is the life!” One is almost tempted to murmur, contentedly. However, if this does not translate into capital, or that projection does not convert into sales, or a project ceases to be income generating, one is looking at a very swift spiral into the doldrums. That is the reality.
My reflection looks at height in a very different sort of way.

“High above all nations is the Lord,
above the heavens his glory.
Who is like the Lord, Our God,
who has risen on high to his throne
yet stoops down from the heights to look down,
to look down upon heaven and earth?”
(Psalm 112:4-6)

God is taken to be on high, exalted, holy, set apart from humanity. Nevertheless, we too are not excluded from this holiness, for we are a people who have been “sealed by an eternal covenant” (Heb 13:20) the covenant of his blood. This is Christ’s exaltation on the Cross, this is why he is lifted up, for in his passion, death and resurrection, he has “raised up” for us “the cup of salvation” (Psalm 115:13). Christ’s exaltation is that he was brought down, laid low, to be beneath contempt, made to suffer intolerable indignities beneath a human being, to be treated even worse than a slave.



This then is why “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name” (Phil 2:9), for he does not look at whether we are able to convert projection into sales, etc. Rather, he has, by his blood, redeemed us, and by so doing “made us ready to do his will in any kind of good action; and turn us all into whatever is acceptable to himself through Jesus Christ.” (Heb 13: 21) Thus, celebrating success is not the about celebrating the dizzying heights of mega-corporations. It is about relationship, our relationship with Christ and each other. So, today, let us celebrate success, Christ’s success, in having won for us our salvation. Let us in turn bend our knee and “confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2: 11).


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Stay tuned for the next post by Br Jovita Ho on 10th Oct 2010.