Overnight Success is usually not a long term guarantee

Whatever happened to those people who put out that viral video sensation “What does the fox say?”

How about ALS being cured forever with all that money they made on the ice bucket challenge?

I just heard an interview from Rico Suave who came out with the only song I remember of his titled…are you ready? “Rico Suave.”  That’s right he just repeated his name for the hook.  When I saw that interview I was like I remember that guy once upon a time.

Here is the deal overnight successes with all the fame, popularity and buzz don’t usually last long.  It’s sad really.  I feel bad mostly for the ones who are getting this exaggerated attention only to find it gone as suddenly as it started.  This is part of pop culture phenomenon.

I see this mentality seeping into the church.  Where we give all this attention to the latest thing and the steady and faithful things get left in the dust.  It’s not a bad thing to be an early adopter of something significant or new.  What’s bad is when we have not grounded ourselves in what has been proven and guaranteed to start chasing what’s popular.  Some people just jump jump like Kris Kross (you see what I did there another pop success) from thing to thing.  Overnight success to me is when there is no proven infrastructure or foundation in place for the amount of success that has been poured out on a thing.  Athletes can attest to their quick rise to the top just to fizzle out as quickly as they came in.

There is no way of stopping this.  Overnight success will continue to come and go.  It’s the people that repeatedly are attracted to them that i hope to help.  I want to help by encouraging you to distinguish them when they show up.  Then secondly, don’t make them everything in how you emotionally and materially invest into them.  You may not realize it but if you’re undisciplined in how you deal with overnight success it may creep into patterns within other areas of your life.  You will go from thing to thing or [God forbid] fling to fling.  There will always be flashy job opportunities, cars, churches and things to own along the way.   It’s your job to enjoy what’s guaranteed in your life when the flashy stuff shows up.  Try not to waste the money and energy that could be invested into long term guarantee type ventures.