Life's Greatest Success

Bro. Eddie C. Villanueva

What could be a greater success than receiving a slot in the illustrious Canada’s Walk of Fame where day after day, people crossing the walkways of Toronto would read your name, forever immortalized in the hearts and minds of your fellowmen? 

Perhaps the one hundred fifty-one Canada’s Walk of Fame inductees would say that they have already reached the peak of success, that they already have it all. But the words of 2011 inductee, Mordecai Richler, say otherwise: “Fundamentally, all writing is about the same thing; it’s about dying, about the brief flicker of time we have here, and the frustration that it creates.”

Even with ten novels and a maple leaf star on the streets of Toronto under his name, that statement by “the great shining star of his Canadian literary generation” resounds with a great disappointment with life. 

Richler is not alone is his thoughts, though. The greatest inductee of all time whose name may not be stamped in the streets of Toronto but is written in the Bible, echoes the same thought: “Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2)

Solomon—king of immense power, teacher of unparalleled wisdom, leader of widespread fame, expert of varied skills, bearer of vast wealth—the epitome of success! He had everything, but he found everything meaningless.

That is what happens when we anchor success on fleeting pleasures. Because in the end, success is not about what we have, but who we have. Notable mathematician Blaise Pascal phrased it perfectly, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator.”

There is absolutely nothing wrong with amassing wealth, power and fame. In fact, if you dream on making it on Canada’s Walk of Fame, I urge you to work towards it! But do not, by any means, allow the material things of this world to deter you from your highest goal: GOD. 

As a former activist-atheist, I know how it is to live a life away from God—I convinced all my students of the inexistence of God, even won as the ‘Debater of the Year’ in proving it! But one fateful day in January 1973, I realized that, despite my achievements and accolades, I had never truly experienced success, until God arrested me and brought me to His loving embrace.

So dear friends, may today be your turnaround day. Make God your life goal and I assure you that, more than a slot on Canada’s Walk of Fame, you will have your name etched in the Book of Life and receive a ticket to heaven’s eternal gates. 

Is there a greater success?




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