The Mystery of Success
Nona L. Brooks
Mysteries,
1924.
Divine Science Federation
Int’l
3rd Printing, 1977.
Copyright Material
Reprinted by Permission
Why have we
always looked upon successful people of
the world with wonder in our eyes?
Perhaps, we have even added in a whisper,
"How did they do it?" Our tendency has
been to wrap veils of mystery around
success, and to think of it as an
achievement of a favored few. Now we know
that man is, by nature, a success,
because he is a son of God. Success is
the normal; it is the rule in the kingdom
of God; hence, the successful man is a
normal man. As long as we are thinking in
terms of the visible only, we are likely
to look upon everything that is not
common to most men as a mystery.
Achievement and attainment are synonyms
of success; falling short is an antonym.
The question is, in which phase of Life
Universal must we succeed in order to be
thought of as a success? Sometimes you
and I pass the successful man by without
a nod of recognition, because he has no
outer accumulations of material
possessions to mark him in the eyes of
the world. Let us learn to know success,
when we see it; we find true success in
the lives that are lived with highest
purpose.
We feel that
we are very certain of the mission of man
as man, the generic man. Wilberforce
says, "Man is the outburst of God." I
like to think that we are spontaneous
expressions of Divine Love because this
love could not contain itself for
joy--the joy of giving. Man must be a
wondrous outburst, when we remember that
God can bring forth nothing unlike
himself. Divinity has a divine mission to
fulfill; man by nature of his Divinity is
here to cooperate. We must have faith in
the process of daily living, for we are
impelled by the Power within to work up
and on until we reach a fuller
realization of truth. Every man is
responsible for living his own life to
the highest that he knows, and he has
even a greater opportunity and obligation
that this, that of taking his part in the
fulfillment of the mission of the whole.
Humanity can not fulfill its mission
perfectly, unless you and I do our parts.
The good of the whole is the purpose of
the life of the individual.
There is
also a special something for which
individual life is destined. Everyone has
his or her particular mission. Each one
of us has his significance in the plan of
the Universal. There is this danger in
the thought process of the man who
believes that he has a mission; he may
think that he is intended for a big work,
something important in the eyes of the
world, and that fulfilling of his mission
means journeying into far places, when
the greatest work he can do lies right at
his door. A mission sounds like a call to
something greater than we are doing in
our daily lives, while it really means
realizing more definitely the truth that
we know just where we are.
There are
many men fulfilling their missions out of
sight of the world. Always take into
consideration when you are endeavoring to
understand the meaning of success, that
he who lives quietly and steadfastly true
to the truth that he knows is attaining
as much and is as important a part of the
universal plan, as is the platform
speaker or any other outstanding man.
Jesus more than any one else knew his
mission, and fulfilled it. His was the
successful life. Best of all he fulfilled
his mission in his daily living; it was
in the experiences of the day that he
proved himself a son of God. He did not
fail in the little things, those details
which many of us consider
insignificant.
I like to
think of Jesus at the carpenter’s
bench with his difficulties much like
ours--a normal lad learning of his
father, preparing to do his work, and
after his father is gone, feeling as the
eldest son of the family, the
responsibility for his mother and
brothers and sisters. I know that Jesus
did his part; he did not falter in the
carrying out of his part in the domestic
conditions, nor did he consider this
responsibility a handicap. I picture him
at his work which, I am sure, was always
done accurately. As Jesus stood at the
carpenter’s bench he doubtless knew
that there would come a time when his
life would open into wider service; but
he did not neglect the thing at hand for
the vision of the thing beyond. Integrity
and love were applied to every experience
of his life.
Think of the
mark Jesus left upon the world in three
short years of public ministry. I like to
think of the way he attained to the great
influence he has left upon daily living.
I enjoy thinking of him in his free
times, wandering in joyousness over the
hills of Galilee, loving all that God had
made and was making. What was the mission
of Jesus? Isaiah gives it as the office
of the Christ--to be a light unto the
world; to do the will of God; to preach
the gospel to the poor; to bind up the
broken-hearted; to proclaim liberty to
the captives. This is the mission of the
Christ in every man, but Jesus fulfilled
his perfectly. What is the individual
mission as we analyze it? I am the light
of the world--it is then our part to
shine forth in the radiance of love. Are
we doing it? Jesus told us that he came
into the world that men might have life
and have it more abundantly. Did not you
and I come into the world for this
purpose? Are we realizing life for
ourselves and for others more abundantly?
There are broken hearts to bind up, and
there are also broken world conditions to
be mended. Let us help bind up the wounds
by living true, thinking true, and
speaking true to the principle of
Omnipresence. Are we so living that our
lives are preaching deliverance to the
captives--those who are bound by
limitations of sin, sickness, poverty and
fear? We have been sent to attain. There
is for us a Divine Intent; our lives must
show it forth. It is your and my mission
to stand forth and live truth. You and I
are centers of light; keep the light
shining. We are witnesses of the truth of
God’s immediate Presence as life,
health, beauty, goodness, truth, and joy.
We can never bind up the broken hearted
by weeping with them over their wounds;
but we can heal their wounds by realizing
truth for them. We must not weep over the
sins of the world, if we would release
those that are bound in the prison house
of sin. We must greet them with love that
is triumphant over all else. Jesus says,
"Be of good cheer, I have overcome the
world."
Truly as
children of God we have a right to
health, supply, happiness, position, and
all else that is good. Are we thinking in
terms of real success? Have we ever
thought that there might be a secondary
success? Are we sacrificing the real
success for it? It is the getting of
outer things that obscures our vision
often. If we can keep our vision clear
and true, we shall see true success--the
inner triumph that comes from
realization. When we understand the true
success, we shall choose that line of
work which gives most to the world
instead of to us as individuals. When an
experience that comes to us makes it
necessary that we should decide upon a
course of action, we shall have the
wisdom to choose that course which leads
us to the good of the whole.
Faithfulness
is essential to the successful life. We
are told that those who are faithful unto
the end shall receive a crown of life.
Death is the word used, but I believe
that it can be interpreted to mean the
end of a process of life. The overcoming
of self-seeking, of wrong habits, of
temper, of instability, is accomplished
by faithfulness. That something which
does not really belong to you will pass,
if you are faithful to the end of the
process of overcoming. What is this crown
of life that is promised to us? It is the
realization of life more abundant, more
glorious, more deeply understanding. It
is the certainty that all power in heaven
and earth is ours, if we are true to the
principle of Omnipresence. Success, the
normal state of a son of God, is your
heritage and mine, and the successful
life is the one that realizes the glory
of its heritage. The man who fulfills his
mission realizes his oneness with God in
all his ways, and solves the mystery of
success.
* * * * *
Mysteries
Table of
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(Formerly at
Northwoods Divine Science Resource
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