The movement towards significance begins rather young.  For what are we if not measured by our proximity to importance?  At least, that is somehow what we have been trained to think.  Recall those middle school years with me.  Placed in the throws of glasses and braces, you were the more fortunate one if you somehow escaped without the awkwardness that comes with junior high, yet you knew that to manage the pubescent pimples meant to hang with the cool kids.  And whether you became one or you were snubbed by one, there was something about being favored that a piece of you hoped for. 

Fast forward through the years, and your vying for significance merely carried itself in different ways.  Athletics were the perfect place to carry glory, even if only to touch it from a distance.  Players willing to sit on the bench of a successful team for even just a taste of victory.  My little hometown has staked firmly in the ground a green road sign as you enter Main Street that states: Home of the 1992/1999/2016/2017 N.Y. State Football Champions.  I can recall attending a championship game as a student, and although our school did not carry the win that year, you felt the significance of being there.  Practically everyone in town made that two hour drive to be a part of football history.  And the players – well, there were probably double the amount of players on the sidelines than were on the field. 

You have probably sat on the sidelines as well, and even somehow managed to skip out on all the practices.  As a matter of fact, kick off time has signaled no more than your favorite spot on the couch and a cold beer.  Call it entertainment value, but my goodness when your team scored that run or made the 3 point shot to clinch the win, your thighs finally felt a bit of burn as you sprung from your seat with victorious cheers, and in that moment you felt it – significance.  Somehow that win was your win.

For much of my 20s I pursued the art form I felt I was made for.  I breathed music, and while I wish I poured more steadfastly into songwriting instead of somewhat unsuccessfully promoting shows, the very pursuit spoke into this drive for something bigger than an ordinary life.  After touring, a rather immense goal that I worked tirelessly to accomplish without the burden of debt, the drive towards full time musician shifted, and though I never intended to let music go, the opportunities presented to both Jordan and myself had us settling into what felt a more ordinary life.  Worship Arts Pastor and Music Teacher on the side.  Two roles that I feel are by no means void of significance, and yet without the allure of a song potentially breaking us into independent music success, I felt rather mediocre.  My striving towards music had become a striving towards significance.  For the first time when someone asked me what the “dream” was, I realized I didn’t have one.  Simply to live in the present as best I knew how, which, mind you, certainly came with its own challenges in our future-driven facade.  Still, you would think there would be some sense of freedom in such a response.  Though speaking truthfully, I at first found it empty.  To pursue something of cultural relevance, attractive impact, and furthermore noted as such was indeed a pursuit towards significance, and without it, the way felt rather uninteresting.  Not the adventure we all strive for, or the ambition people sit on the sidelines to witness.  The next few years was a beautiful journey towards humility, personal value, and unexpected rest.  To summarize that piece of my story down to one sentence feels undoubtably undermining, yet allow me to skip ahead.  Although my wrestling with mediocrity felt settled, I soon found myself reaching for significance elsewhere.  Though on staff at a small church on its own, we were a part of a much larger community of churches, and an organization very influential in church planting across the globe.  Though not directly connected to the work being done, I felt a sense of being “someone” when under the banner of such an influential organization.  To the point where I felt that if ever on staff at a church again, I inwardly asserted that it would feel a step backward to not be a part of an organization with an equally wide influence.  There’s a bit of shame in even expressing that in writing, and thankfully I was jolted back to the ridiculousness of such a statement, but for my head to have even gone there for but a moment speaks of the incredible power of significance and our craving for it.

To long for significance is by no means an unexpected hunger.  And not merely because our culture praises ambitious adventures and celebrates both glory and fame, but because truly we were made for a task much deeper, much grander than the mediocre.  However the pitfall that chases purpose is envy, ego, dependence and discontentment.  You are then no less than the success you have achieved, and yet still no greater than the ordinary you have tried to escape.  Be significant.  Pursue legacy.  All the while attain meekness.  May your significance illuminate in the common place and all that is menial tell of your story.

EXPOSITION: The search for significance is by no means found solely in victorious sports teams or impactful non-profits.  What individual, group of individuals, organization, or even self-driven dream has you doing whatever it takes to be a part of whatever that is?  What people have you given a greater voice to than they should have in your life because you long to follow in their stead?

RISE: Be willing to call yourself out for the things you have relentlessly yielded yourself to for more than simply believing in it, but because you actually find significance through it.  Consider the challenge of lowliness, while pursuing for the sake of others over self.

DENOUEMENT: “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” -Jesus