Beyond Success or Failure

From the human perspective, the way to a good and happy life is to maximize our successes and minimize our failures in life. Whatever situation we face we hope we'll come out on top; prevail with our preferences and be met with favor and acceptance. We want our ideas to matter, our plans found cogent, and our actions effective. Conversely, we wince at the thought of failure; plans that go south, being rejected, people who neither understand us nor stand with us. We readily embrace favorable results, with measurable profits and the good opinion of others and shun the disastrous outcome, with nothing to show for our efforts when even our friends won't hang with us.

Holy week that begins with Palm Sunday and ends with Easter provides the stark contrast of apparent success and failure experienced by Jesus. At the beginning of this week Jesus seems to be experiencing extraordinary success, with adoring crowds worshiping him as he entered Jerusalem. From the human perspective, Jesus is winning the popular vote hands down, and garnering a hero's welcome such as a victorious king might receive returning from a triumphant battle. But in just a few days the bloom comes off the rose, the table is turned over, and Jesus becomes an embattled messenger. He is vilified, betrayed and abandoned by his closest friends to face alone the worst fate imaginable. From our mortal mind's eye this scenario is the epitome of a miserable failure.

Beyond appearances this week of highs and lows, carries a much deeper message that can serve as powerful metaphor for the days, weeks, or moments of ups and downs that arise in our own journey. From the spiritual perspective, articulated and demonstrated by the one who maintained that his kingdom was not of this world, the outer events were not the real measurables from his journey. Jesus would likely agree with the assessment that notions of success and failure are two sides of the same coin. That coin is judgment born of limited human perception.

Jesus was not caught up in the adulation that sought to externalize his value, nor the condemnation that sought to destroy him. Jesus knew who he was and knew his mission was to speak and live the message of Truth regardless of whether that message brought him praise or blame. The truth that he said would set us free, liberated Jesus from identification with external image or public stature regardless of the latest poll results.

Jesus invited us to follow in his way - a way of transformation where the outer voices do not define us nor limit us. Jesus listened to the inner voice of Spirit, perhaps the very earliest advice on how to avoid identity theft.

No matter what may arise on the road of life, we do not have to lose ourselves in it. By staying true to our spiritual purpose, and remaining online with the Divine, we can succeed in the true mission that we share with Jesus - to bear witness to the eternal Spirit in which we live and move and have our very being.