Success: What you want? Or what God intends?

"You can be anything you want!"

"Hard work pays!"

"Go after the church/lifestyle/home you want!"

Some of that sounds good, doesn't it? We pump our kids full of messages of success and how success is achieved all during their growing years. We encourage hard work and determination. We build up a limitless bank of opportunities available to them.

I sometimes wonder if the messages we send to our children are the kinds of messages Solomon received. He was raised a prince, a future king. He was given wisdom beyond what any other human would ever experience. He could, literally, do whatever he wanted. He knew that he was going to be the king one day, inheriting a fabulous monarchy established by his father, David.

It all seemed to be going well. He was sought after for his wisdom, admired for his wealth and his unique ability to obtain it. Dignitaries sought him for his counsel and knowledge in many areas. By all accounts, he had it made and was blessed!

Then comes 1 Kings 11. I think of a couple of overused cliches. "The higher they climb, the further they fall," for instance. Solomon was "obsessed with women." He married women from all the nations surrounding Israel, nations who worshipped false gods, nations God expressly commanded Israel to have little to do with (or even to destroy, originally). God's own Name was to be protected, and Israel was to bless by showing the true God to be different than these false deities that required horrific things of their worshippers. He was to be attractive for His goodness and love, for the value of human dignity and His creation, and for the promise of redeeming the world in a way no other god was able.

But Solomon fell. God said to him, "I'm going to rip the kingdom from you and hand it to someone else. But out of respect for your father David I won't do it in your lifetime."

To the one to whom 10 of the tribes was to be given, Jereboam, was given the promise that was very similar to what was given to David and to Solomon: "If you listen to what I tell you and live the way I show you and do what pleases me, following directions and obeying orders as my servant David did, I'll stick with you no matter what. I'll build you a kingdom as solid as the one I built for David. Israel will be yours! I am bringing pain and trouble on David's descendants, but the trials won't last forever."

Assimilation to surrounding influences outside of God's directives and community is a dangerous game to play. Playing political games and relenting to personal desires, and using one's power to do it, yields disastrous compromise. With great influence comes great responsibility: The intent of Godly influence should be to bless the world as God desires, and to make God known.

Solomon used his power to consolidate his power, work for political gain, and satisfy his lusts, and it led him away from God and caused him to drag God's great Name through the muck.

Whatever influence you may have, what is the intention of using it? Is it Godly? Is it driven by His mission to save humanity, by Christ's commission to make disciples? Anything less than this, including using it to satisfy one's own preferences for "appropriate worship" of God, or to realize the "Great American Dream," or anything else with self and the building up of self as the primary focus, falls short and leads down a path with a bad end.

May the unfortunately lesson of Solomon lead us to something different and God-honoring. Godly intent with God-given influence leads to Godly success.