The desire to be a somebody can lead people to do crazy things.

I will spare you my own foolish stories from high school. Thankfully the Bible is full of examples.

Leah and Rachel were sisters. They shared more than the same set of parents. They also shared a husband, Jacob. But when Leah gave birth to four children and Rachel gave birth to none, Rachel began feeling like a nobody. So she did what nobodies do.

She got desperate.

She had her female servant sleep with Jacob. When the servant became pregnant and gave birth to a son, Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son” (Genesis 30:6).

She wanted to give her husband a son, and she found a way to do it. The irritating part is that she interpreted her “success” as a sign that God approved of her method.

That’s the funny thing about success. It can fool you into thinking you’re somebody that you’re not.

Success is way overrated. God celebrates our failures when failures are the result of doing the right thing for the right reason.

You don’t need success to be a somebody. When Jesus died, it seemed like he had failed to establish the kingdom he had talked about so much. But it was through this “failure” that God succeeded in changing you from a nobody to a somebody who belongs with him.