Jesus asked a question in Mark 8:36 which I find to be very challenging to the way I live.  He asked, "And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?  Is anything worth more than your soul?"  Most of us would consider the second question rhetorical.  If we take the time to think about it and weight the worth of our souls, most, if not all, would say nothing is worth risking my soul.  Yet for so many of us, we risk it every day.

How do we risk our souls?  This comes from the first question.  Another way to rephrase Jesus' question is "How will you define success?  Is success to be defined materially (gain the whole world) or spiritually (not lose your own soul)?"  For many of us, if you look at our priorities, our efforts, our desires, it would readily show that we define success by some measure of material existence.  It doesn't necessarily have to be money (although it can be).  It could be by the number and class of our friends.  It could be by the power we have to control our lives (or the lives of others).  It could be by the desire for approval.  It could be by the drive to be first, to win.  There can be a lot of different ways to materially define success, and any of them can cause us to invest our energy, time, and resources in such a way that we may advance materially, but put the health of our souls at risk.

Henri Nouwen once wrote, "There is a great difference between successfulness and fruitfulness.  Sucess comes from strength, control, and respectability. ... Fruits, however, come from weakness and vulnerability.  ...  Let's remind one another that what brings us joy is not successfulness but fruitfulness."

Are we pursuing what will really make us happy?  Or are we pursuing what our culture, our friends, our traditions, and the material consumerism of our world says will make us happy?  How about it?  Where are you putting your energy, your resources, your time?  Successfulness?  Fruitfulness?  What will it benefit you if you gain all the successfulness you dream of but fail to realize the fruitfulness which will enrich our souls?  Amazing question isn't it?

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