SUCCESSFUL: 4x200m gold medallists and world record holders Kylie Palmer, Bronte Barratt, Linda Mackenzie and Stephanie Rice Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Success comes in all fields of human endeavour. Wouldn’t you mind a dollar for every time you read the word in the daily press? Successful athlete, successful operation, successful concert tour, box-office success, successful business venture... and so on. If you’re at all like me, you sometimes feel anything but a success in comparison with other people and their achievements.

Are we thinking rightly?
If you ask someone in the street what they think success is, the chances are that you would hear statements like ‘getting rich’, ‘making the big time’, ‘being in demand’, ‘winning’, ‘enjoying a lucky streak’, or any number of answers like this.

It seems taken for granted that a successful person will have plenty of money, fame and happiness always at their fingertips. It seems almost a law that if you haven’t experienced all this, then you have failed. Therefore you must keep trying.

Using a better measure
I consider my mother a success. She raised a decent family and set them in the right direction. She worked hard and carried all her responsibilities with dedication and good spirits. She never made enemies and showed helpfulness to everyone. She kept house until old age.

But she never had her picture in the paper, never had much money, never made a mark in the corporate world or feasted on pleasure. If the measure you use says that character and virtue make for success, then she was a success. Of course, there are millions like her.

We must examine our goals.
What are we wanting to achieve? And why? For whom? Remember, thieves, murderers and warlords can be successful.

Jewish leaders and the Roman governor, Pilate were respected and feared. Before them stood a man, who, it appeared, was in disaster mode. Soon, he was ridiculed, spat upon and beaten. Crowds followed him as he carried his cross outside the city. As he hung on it, more insults were hurled. This was deep suffering, unfathomed by any other man. His death looked pathetic, shameful, repulsive.

What was achieved? He died on behalf of others, paying the price of sin, giving away his life to bring life to us. Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. His success was displayed by his resurrection from death. As the Saviour of the world, he has lifted countless people out of their failure and into life that never ends.

Without doubt, Jesus Christ is the most successful achiever in history, and you can get to know Him by reading any of first four books of the New Testament.