The Significance

Significance. It’s what ultimately drives most human beings to go farther, to reach higher, to try more. We long for significance in life. That’s another way to say we want to have a purpose and to make an impact on the world we live in.

Solomon wrote at great length about the efforts he made to leave his mark on the world. He said in Ecclesiastes 2:4-5, “I also tried to find meaning by building huge homes for myself and by planting beautiful vineyards. I made gardens and parks, filling them with all kinds of fruit trees.” His conclusion: Vanity!

But if simply “being noticed” is the end result of our search for significance, then we might find ourselves making major compromises to the standards we have.

Education opens doors of opportunities. Being educated also is a means to help communicate with others, even specializing in something that really has the power to impact others—and bring more significance to ourselves. A good education can help us work in harmony with God’s goal for mankind and our own search for significance.

The opposite can be true as well. When our “education” is more focused on things that go against our standard found in Christ, then we can find ourselves truly lost in the end.

Jesus said in Matthew 16:25-26, “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?”

Paul said in 1 Timothy 6:9-10, “But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.”

Our education points us in the right direction and becomes the standard we live by. If we make Christ the standard behind any kind of education we seek to gain, then we will find significance and peace.

Jesus modeled the level of involvement, the sacrifice, and the determination it took to make a significant impact on the world without losing sight of God’s high standard. Make Christ’s ways part of your ways; you might find that others can find a way because of your choices today.