The Climb To The Top Series

Today wraps up this series on idolatry. Over the last 4 weeks we've talked about exposing the golden calf in our lives, looking at surface idols and root idols. Then we talked about a couple of specific areas of idolatry that commonly affect us, family and money. As this series comes to a close, we're looking at one final idol that can be incredibly pervasive in most if not all of our lives as it is woven into the fabric of our culture. It manifests itself under different names - power, success, or achievement.

To start off, I'd like to show you a photo of a man you've probably never seen before:

**PHOTOGRAPH OF NATHAN HATCH**

This man is named Nathan Hatch and in the world of education, he's pretty successful. He was a leading historian of religion in the United States before becoming a provost at Notre Dame, until he left that position to serve as President of Wake Forest University in North Carolina until 2020. But, not only was he the president of Wake Forest, a highly significant university, he was also on the board of American Higher Education, he was on the board of the NCAA, and he was the Vice Chairman of the CIC, the Council of Independent Colleges. The CIC consists of about 600 colleges and universities nationwide. It represents, overall, at least a few million college students.

At this point, if you're sitting here following what I'm saying and just reading along - thank you. But also, I don't blame you at all if you're wondering why in the world I've shown a photo of some random guy and just started reading his resume. I promise he's not looking for a job - he's retired. But what I'm getting at here, is that when a man with this kind of level of expertise and reputation talks about higher education, people listen. They take note because he obviously has some sort of idea of what he's talking about.

In 2009, and you can read this for yourself on Wake Forests's website, Nathan Hatch gave a keynote address at the CIC, to about 600 college presidents, titled Renewing the Wellsprings of Responsibility. This keynote address started with some notes that educators had observed regarding some trends dating back over the last 20-30 years or so. Here's what was observed. Out of all the enrollment across these 600 colleges nationwide, there's been a disproportionate amount of students who are choosing to study a few niche areas, a few specific majors. The majors are in corporate and investment finance, banking, corporate law and business consulting, and specialized medicine to name a few. And this is interesting to him because there's way more students that are signing up for these majors than would statistically have a gift/talent/natural skill or bent toward that particular study. Now it's not necessarily rocket science to figure out why so many students are funneling into these careers.

They make money. A lot of money.

But further, they serve as the benchmarks of success and status in our culture.

Nathan Hatch doesn't just simply look at this and say, "Look at the drive and ambition of our young people. Look at how many are shooting for the highest levels of success! Look at how many are shooting for the stars!"

Instead, he says:

"...young people have been defining success and choosing careers with less attention to larger questions of meaning and purpose. The stratospheric salaries in investment banking, in consulting, in the premier law firms, and in specialized sectors of medicine have bedazzled a whole generation of our best students. Yet despite their financial success, there are signs of acute frustration by many young professionals. Often, their work does not satisfy or sustain."

-Nathan Hatch, Renewing the Wellsprings of Responsibility Keynote, 2009

He continues on talking about career burnout. These people in these highly prestigious and competitive careers without total burnout - and it's because people flood into these life choices and careers not because of a gifting, calling, or passion - but rather because, for lack of a better term - instead of shooting for the stars they're starstruck. Actually - let's put it like this - they're success-struck.

Now the question that I think naturally arises is this - why? (I find myself asking that question more and more these days.) There's no way that this happened just out of nowhere, right? This success-struck pursuit that embodies our culture has to start somewhere.

Here's what he continues to say about it:

"This culture of achievement can be all-pervasive. ...the quiet revolution in the way Americans are raising their children [is the] professionalization of childhood. Even grade school children are pushed into a culture of competition, with great attention given to which school they should attend, what grades they should achieve, and how many activities they should pursue. There exists...a massive organic apparatus for the production of children, a mighty "Achievatron.” The message is loud and clear: identity at any age is formed by what we do and accomplish."