By Bill Wilson
Novelist Walker Percy often said that the trouble with most people is that they are not up to anything significant.
In his book Halftime: Moving From Success to Significance, Bob Buford suggests that many of us come to a point in our life when we realize that we have been in a futile pursuit of success, when what we desperately need is significance.
The same is often true of churches. Asking each other to sacrificially give our money, time and energy simply so that we can take care of ourselves or be bigger and more comfortable is a short road to frustration and irrelevance. It leads to a shallow notion of success.
Congregations that are self-absorbed find that they can never provide enough of anything. There is always an appetite for more programs, facilities or events that never quite satisfy our hunger for entertainment and/or nourishment. Staff are here to meet our expectations. When they do, we take great pride in them. When they do not, we critique them with brutal tactics.
I believe we are called instead to give ourselves to something of great significance. God has called us to join him in creating nothing less than his Kingdom work here on Earth. We pray it without thinking when reciting the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.” When we give ourselves fully to that significant task, real success is inevitable.
Over the next few weeks, thousands of youth and adult mission trips or endeavors will take place across our nation. From congregations of all sizes and shapes, we will send out teams to selflessly do the work of the Kingdom.
At no small sacrifice, a small army of men, women, boy and girls will fan out around the globe on a mission from God. Some will do great good. Others will try not to inflict too much harm. In the end, most of them will share a common experience.
When the team returns, what their congregations will hear goes something like this:
“I didn’t really know what to expect, but I went anyway. The food was strange, but I ate it anyway. The people were different, but I loved them anyway. The idea of helping others in Jesus’ name was new, but I tried it anyway. I am a different person than when I left here. I am so thankful to be part of something that truly makes a difference, something that is actually significant!”
At that point, everyone and every church will face a choice. Will we simply revert back to a life focused on success (as defined by our culture), or do we continue to explore what a life focused on significance might look like?
Too often our everyday lives are lived outside the arena where God is at work. We busy ourselves with our consumer lifestyles, pursuit of pleasure and drive to appear successful.
Part of our journey toward being a vibrant and alive church is to remind each other of the things that are truly significant. Far too many of us are engaged in the pursuit of happiness to the exclusion of the pursuit of significance.
Our mission projects and trips should remind us of what life in the Kingdom is supposed to look like. It is less about us and more about others; focused not on what we want, but upon what God needs; more interested in serving than being served; giving rather than getting.
Jesus made it as simple and as clear as he could: You find your life when you give yourself away (Matthew 16:25).
Alas, we are slow learners. We have been immunized to the power of these life-giving words by a steady diet of consumerism and self-absorption. This summer, I hope you and your church will heed the repeated illustrations God is sending you that reinforce this essential trait of significant and abundant living.
Give yourself away, and find yourself. Not just on a mission trip, but on your street, in your home, in your school, at your job. It’s your mission and your calling from God.
We have more than enough success stories to go around. What our world desperately needs is for you to live a significant life.