Oh, how I prospered! I left all my predecessors in Jerusalem far behind, left them behind in the dust. What’s more, I kept a clear head through it all. Everything I wanted I took—I never said no to myself. I gave in to every impulse, held back nothing. I sucked the marrow of pleasure out of every task—my reward to myself for a hard day’s work! Then I took a good look at everything I’d done, looked at all the sweat and hard work. But when I looked, I saw nothing but smoke. Smoke and spitting into the wind. There was nothing to any of it. Nothing. (Ecclesiastes 2:9-11, MSG)

Let me confess that I have been wrestling the monster of success. I got caught up in what doesn’t matter. I let this website, the books, and newsletters define who I am. I was asked questions from several people that sounded like this, “How many readers do you have?”, “How many books have you sold?”, “How many blog followers do you have?”, and a few others.

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