Have you ever had one of those conversations when someone says something that just stays with you? It stirs your soul. It lingers in your thoughts. It causes you to take pause. I recently had one of those conversations. A lady was sharing how overwhelmed she felt about everything in her life. Many people and responsibilities were calling for her attention. She recognized that her busyness was a way to distract her from her pain and give her a sense of importance in the world but now, it no longer gave her that satisfaction. She was looking for meaning in her life and a greater purpose. She said, “I feel like I am living my life in urgency rather than significance.”
Her words have stayed with me for some time now – urgency vs. significance. These words have caused me to reflect and take an honest look at my life and observe the world around me. It’s easy to mistake busyness for significance, when in reality we are living in a state of urgency. It’s easy to mistake holding a title high in the corporate ladder or in the church for significance, when in reality we are living out of our false self. It’s easy to mistake our income or how big our house is for significance, when in reality we feel empty inside. It’s easy to mistake our good deeds for significance, when in reality we are hiding the shame and guilt we feel inside. It’s easy to base our significance on many false, temporary things. It’s too easy, so we miss looking more deeply into our hearts.
God must have known we needed a lot of reminders of our significance because throughout Scripture, God reminds us of our true significance:
Created in His image
Child of God
Friend of Christ
Redeemed
Accepted
Anointed
Chosen
Loved…