Dear COA Family,

Recently I watched an Instagram reel of a young man who went about interviewing people on the
streets about how they had achieved their success. He approached those with visible trappings of
success, such as driving an expensive car and wearing branded clothes. His effort has garnered millions of views.
This shows how much people are concerned about success.

His channel is also quite interesting. He interviewed entrepreneurs, real estate agents, actors
and doctors. Many of them gave advice based on their own experiences, and they could be quite
contradictory. One successful businessman said that going to school was a total waste of time and
that everything valuable he had learnt was in the streets. Another said how he wished he had
more education when he was young. This would have helped him become more successful.

But it was the questions of the young man that were most revealing:
1. How much money did you make last year?
2. How old were you when you made your first million?
3. What advice do you have for people to scale up from six digits to seven digits?

In other words, for him, success was all about having a lot of money – and the more the merrier.

Perhaps many in our society may agree with him.

But in the light of Easter, our perspectives and priorities have changed.

The Apostle Paul writes,
“He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves.
Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them” (2 Corinthians 5:15).

The death and resurrection of Christ have brought about a new hope and a new purpose for us
as sons and daughters of God. Our focus should now be on what is unseen and eternal instead of
the material trappings of earthly life. These are merely temporal in nature and can never bring about
lasting security and peace that all people crave for.

The true measure of success is how we are “gaining Christ”, or growing in likeness
of our Lord each day.

The Apostle Paul explains,
“I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for
whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ… yes, to know
the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and
so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:8-11).

In this season, may we all be steadfast, immovable and always abounding in the work of the Lord,
knowing that all we do for him is never in vain!

Blessings,
Revd Ian