There is a standard by which we measure ourselves to determine success or failure. Everyone we know receives the same analysis in our eyes. Some receive more favor or gentleness of application but all are measured. Then, we want to know where “we” fit on the scale we have created. We even declare the value of things around us to signify the rewards due for the achievements. Gold is best and blue is prettiest. 
Flashy is necessary and brilliantly colored is only for the highest. Every thought and intent of our cognizant being is coddled daily by this one directive. In the end we will be the “most successful” or we will only have been.
Some days we just come up short. Trying is not doing and succeeding. But there is no success without trying. Being able to say something profound and consequential is the exception for most of us. Yet without the many words, few will be often repeated and ordained as praiseworthy. There are pinnacles we point to as esteem-able goals. There are measures of achievement we label as “We have arrived”. We marvel at the most unique and solitary examples of life. We think and understand that we are special. Then we imagine an existence where we are that very pinnacle.
Truth attempts to creep in somewhere. Reality rears its obtrusive self before us sometimes. The measurement by which we judge stands as an inescapable barrier. The heights we proclaim as desirable, appear as inaccessible. Clouds drift by and we imitate them on canvas; then declare how great a painter we are. Life comes to a precipice broken and teetering on collapse, so we repair the defect then declare the greatness of the physician. Ignorance runs rampant around us giving the opportunity to share what little we know and we vaunt our own wisdom and knowledge.
And all that is and all that we do, is the result of the choice of someone else. In every generation and in every kingdom decisions we cannot control are made which control us. Consider those who would have made the greatest impact if only they had been. For good or evil, for prosperity or poverty, some who might have been never will be by someone’s choice. In recent generations some of the most brilliant human minds have not been born because other brilliant minds decided. Someone decided to conquer and another decided to resist and the consequences left millions prematurely dead. They will never then have children or see grandchildren who might have solved the greatest dilemmas of their age.
Very often what we call advances are the results of creative minds being joined one to another and promulgating the ideas and inventions before them into remarkable discoveries and capacities beyond what could have been imagined a generation before. Space travel is viewed in our day as barely graspable. As airplane flight was even a few generations before. Steam powered locomotives and paddle wheel steamships were only pipe dreams prior to that. The fastest, the largest, the highest, the strongest are always appealed to as the goal. Where is it defined, what is enough?
In the beginning God. If this is not the premise by which we breathe then all that is before us is of our own delusional making. We have not even known of the existence of DeoxyriboNucleic Acid until a few generations ago. The actual mapping of the participant particles of DNA was only first accomplished some fifteen years ago. And even now we promote ourselves as the possessors of all understanding when it is apparent to the most casual observer that we have only just broken through the surface. So the question begs to be asked “From whence did the genome come”? Was there, is there an originator of all things? Perhaps, in the beginning, God created.
While we want to be seen as the highest, we clearly witness the cracks in our facade. It is not that we are failed but rather that we have failed to align ourselves with truth. Truth is the one reality which cannot be denied. Our understanding and acceptance of truth is what allows us to align our thinking with reality. And reality is living the life that matters. The greatest painter imitates the creator of all he paints. The greatest poet muses over thoughts which declare the creator of all to the end that they might extol or deny Him. The mightiest creative genius who stretches our known world beyond what a million others might see as possible still only exercises that which is given to them by the creator of all.
Finding ourselves at the top would cause us to place the creator under us. Can the thing created say unto the creator, “Why have you made me thus”? Will that which is made rise up to overthrow its maker? This fear is the subject of most fantasies written concerning the future possibilities of the robotic creations of our day and time. We build smarter and faster machines and program within them the things which we accept as right and wrong and thereby label ourselves as enemies of our own existence. In so doing we recognize and admit that we are at best most unworthy and unfaithful servants of He who has created us.
Yet if we were to publicly confess the reality we stand against, we would understand our need to be held accountable for our choices. The Bible declares that sin is the transgression of the law. It is God’s law, His way, His set path for His creation which we have violated. But there is little desire within us to acknowledge sin.
For doing so would require us to accept the consequences for our choices. “The Soul that sins will surely die.” This is again, another clue for us written in the Bible. There is no one who escapes this judgment. Someone must pay the price for our choice of sin. It is not a momentary death but rather an eternal one. Just as the soul of each human was created as an eternal soul, even so must each soul live or die eternally.
The reality check we have is the Bible. Often imitated, misused, misunderstood, even perverted, but never duplicated. Either it is right or you are. Jesus stated His desire for His creation to live forever. When mankind chose a path which required death as its penalty, Jesus chose to pay that penalty Himself so His creation might live eternally. Still He gave them choice. He gives you the choice to die now and live forever or live now only to die forever. Believe it or not, that is the reality you face. In order to be on top you must go to the bottom. The standard by which we measure is reversed by our selfish and wicked desire. We are told there is an answer. We are given the clarity to acknowledge Him.
Some days we just come up short. Trying is not doing and succeeding. Success is only available when it agrees with reality. We dream of being able to say something profound and consequential. Here is the most profound thing which can be uttered, “Dear Lord Jesus, I am a sinner who has failed to obey You. Please forgive me and save me from the wrath I deserve for my rebellion.” Acknowledging Him as Lord and Savior is the most consequential thing you will ever accomplish. Until then your rebellion is your greatest choice and the most horrible consequence you can know.