Want to be Significant? .......... Parables 671

May 23, 2000

The child who stabbed his classmates said he did it because he wanted attention. He got what he wanted, but is he satisfied?

Attention seekers feel they are not important, that no one notices or appreciates them. Some attention would take them from a nobody to a somebody. Is this the somebody-status he wanted?

This child is tragically confused about his own identity. To build up himself, he seriously injures others. This may not have happened had he realized even a single benevolent achievement seldom raises one’s self worth for the long term, never mind what one act of violence will do to it.

Can anyone do anything to make themselves more important in their own minds? Perhaps, but first, we need to understand the difference between being and doing. Is who we are established by our actions, or do our actions simply bring out who we are?

Pam (not her real name) wanted to be wealthy and belong to that crowd who has money. She dressed in the finest clothes, bought the most expensive furniture, and frequented the classiest restaurants, doing all the things a rich person does. However, she is not rich. In her desperate desire to be what she is not, she embezzled money and was caught. Doing the actions did not make her rich, it put her in prison, compounded her delusions, and exposed her desperate heart.

The Bible offers a great deal on this topic of who we are. An Old Testament proverb warns us to watch how we relate to people because no matter how they appear on the surface, “as that man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

God never separates our external actions from what goes on inside. If a person is nice to others, God considers their motivation and whether they have personal gain in mind. He sees all our selfishness, no matter how we cover it. Little wonder He can say that “all sin and falls short of His glory.”

Nevertheless, God never condemns us for our desire to be significant. This is part of being created in His image. Because we were intended to reflect the likeness of God, we have this sense of being less significant than we ought to be. Our departure from walking with God created the loss and something in us wants to regain that sense of being more than we are.

God’s condemnation is not against our desire for significance but against our sinful efforts to make ourselves important without Him. We do not live as He intended.

Think of it: we already are, by creation, significant creatures. Our efforts to make impressions, get attention, or be significant simply deny what God did when He made us. Instead of acknowledging Him and what He did, we try to do it ourselves. All our efforts do not change the fact that we are people made in the image of God.

What changed it is our disobedience to God. We cannot reflect His image when we go against Him. Every time we do, we lose something. Stabbing people seems a greater sin yet even a “white lie” pulls us down from the status we could have. Instead of being important, we fall short of what He intended. He wants a significance for us beyond our wildest imaginings.

An eagle was intended to fly. Put it in a cage or a chicken coop and it has lost its glory. Human beings were intended to reflect the image of God. When we resist and rebel against Him, we also lose our glory. Stabbing someone is just one of the many pitiful ways of trying to get it back but the only way that works is turning from our efforts to the One who can redeem and restore us.