Barry's Blog

In his book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, Sociologist Christian Smith gave the moniker, "moralistic, therapeutic deism," to describe the dominant understanding of God that he observed among younger Americans. In such a worldview, God blesses those who try to live good lives (the "moralist" belief), where the goal of life is not to deny oneself, but to be happy and feel good about yourself (the "therapeutic" belief). And although God in this worldview certainly exists and created our world, He does not necessarily have to be particularly involved in our lives except when there is a problem to deal with (that is the "deism" belief).

In such a world, not unlike the British poet W. E. Henley's poem, "Invictus," we become the the "master of my fate, the captain of my soul," as happiness and salvation lie within our own power. As Tim Keller points out in his book, "Counterfeit Gods," such a "moralistic, therapeutic deism" could only develop in a prosperous, privileged society. So there should be little surprise that successful people "at the top," are prone to credit their success to their own brilliance, savvy, and hard work.

Yet in truth, the reality of success is much more complex than that. If we are candid with ourselves, much of business success at least, is due to a convergence of factors: personal friendships, opportunities, being at the right place at the right time, family environment, hard work, and as much as we may not want to admit it, what may seem to be plain luck! Undoubtedly, we are responsible for our own choices, but we had no influence on our genetics or environment, large indicators of how far we might go.

In his book, Outliers, Canadian writer Malcolm Gladwell recounts in numerous stories, as Keller points out in his book, that much of our success is a product of our environment. He cites the case of a number of Jewish New York City lawyers, all born around 1930, where a supposed "accident of time" gave them unique advantages. They attended underpopulated schools where they received greater attention from teachers, and high quality and inexpensive college and legal educations were open to them at the time. Likewise, because of anti-Semitic prejudices, they were excluded from white-shoe law firms, which forced them into specializations such as proxy fights that the established firms would not take on. But then, during the seventies and eighties when hostile takeovers began, this gave them an enormous competitive advantage, so that they made a tremendous amount of money.

While there is no question that natural talent and hard work are critical to success, it is also true that environment, timing, heredity, and personal choice play a large role in our success, much more than we are likely to admit. And in some mysterious way, the influences, opportunities, privileges and successes that we experience in this life, lie in the hands of a good and benevolent God.That is why the Scriptures warn against the peril of pride when we reflect on our accomplishments and successes in this life, for it is God who has given us this ability, and not ourselves.

"When your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply...and you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them...then your heart becomes proud, and you forget the Lord your God...You may say in your heart, 'My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.' But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you the power to make wealth." -Deuteronomy 8:13-14, 17-18.

No one should, "become arrogant, one man against another. For who regards you as superior? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" -1 Corinthians 4:6-7