The God of the Spirits of all Humankind- A Life of Significance

I want my life to be significant. That desire is hardwired into what it means to be a human. Marshall Rosenberg pioneered Nonviolent Communication in the 1960's, which focuses on communication as expression of needs. He listed the need to give life to another human being as one of the most significant human needs. In other words, we all experience the fundamental need to make a significant impact. When I was in Kenya almost a year ago, I talked to people raised in a completely different culture as ours who wanted to have lives of significance. They were young men and women who desired education and training in order to come back to their village and make it a better place. They would not have become rich, at least by our standards. And while they may have been tempted by material possessions, their hearts were on fire for their community. The same fire burns in the hearts of all people. And God nurtures that need with the Holy Spirit. By the Spirit, people are gifted and encouraged to go out and continue the work of Jesus Christ- a life of significance. The problem is that the word "significance" is married in our culture to economic thinking. We use words like "invest" to talk about mentoring. This, by itself, is not bad however, significance can easily be seen in the realm of scale and scope. In other words, significance is celebrity. Significance is being on the New York Times bestseller list. Significance is being heard by thousands of followers online and selling out conference centers. Significance is awards and accolades, the suitable reward for hard work. I think we can only move forward if we take an understanding of significance that is closer to the life of Jesus. One author explains this significance in the "For all, for one" rule. Think for yourself about what should be true for all people, and then help one person with that. All children should have a safe place to be a kid (Mark 9:42), a Kids Hope mentor helps one kid have that space. All people should be growing in their faith and living lives more like Jesus (Matthew 28:20)- Jan starts groups with three people at a time. There should be no poor among us (Deuteronomy 15:4), our Saturday morning Men's Bible Study helps one family at a time. To me, these are stories of significance. They may not be turned into a blockbuster movie, but they embody the truth of God's Word in our world.