The right way to measure success

You are not at true success unless you are helping others to be successful as well.

Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s guardian?”

Background passage Gen. 4:2-9 (CSB).

When I was younger, there was a movie that a lot of you may have watched called “New Jack City.” Its stars, Wesley Snipes and Allen Payne, were best friends who started an illegal organization. The moral of the organization was “Are you your brother’s keeper?” Many of us grew up with siblings, and we were told to look out for each other. Well, this was the same situation with Cain and Abel.

True success comes when you are able to help other people become successful. It comes when you are no longer jealous or envious of someone else’s success. You realize that the more people you help to succeed, the more truly successful you become.

Cain had a problem because he wanted success. He wanted God to acknowledge him more like many people do today, and he did it at the expense of tearing down and killing his brother.

We see in society where people destroy, defame, or even hurt one another just so they do not have any competition. That is not how you measure success and that is not how you please God.

See, Cain had a problem. He realized that his offering wasn’t good enough for God. But it actually wasn’t about his offering. It was about his heart.

When we begin to learn that we’re all connected as one and it is not about how great we are individually, but about how great God is and how great His creations can be, then we truly understand how great success could be.