We Are Insignificant

We are insignificant.

Atheists even like to say that we are insignificant.

Gandhi once said, "Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."

But this truth isn't just a harsh truth without a positive answer. We aren't left with the pessimism and disillusionment of the early chapters that one may read in Ecclesiastes without hope. The author wallows in the meaninglessness of it all, but that book doesn't just end there. We aren't atheists without a God. God's message doesn't just leave us without hope.

I want to add a big "but" to the statement that we are insignificant because, like Sir Mix A Lot I like big "buts."Without adding to the statement "we are insignificant," that phrase is only a half truth - almost a lie.
 

You see, we are insignificant BUT if we are doing the things of God, then we are not doing something insignificant. We are doing something that will last. When we acknowledge our insignificance and begin to live for the significant One, then we vicariously become significant. God is trying to wake us up to Him. From our slumber of selfishness into the consciousness of Him. He wants us to realize that pursuing our own dreams and desires is insignificant, but living for His dreams and desire is significant.

We look up into the deep expanse of the night sky. We look out on the neverending ocean. We stare in the face of the death. We are surrounded by things that should constantly remind us about our own insignificance. But then the world gives us all this self-help mumbo jumbo that pulls us away from the precipice of truth that God created for us to peer into. Instead, we begin to think that we are great, that we are really someone special. We imagine that we are irreplaceable. We think that God loves us for who we are rather than Him loving us despite who we are. We think we are God's gift to humanity. We let pride sink in and are swallowed up by pride's mistress, selfishness.  We begin to think we are significant, forgetting that we are insignificant, which prevents us from truly living for God.

For at the core of becoming a Christian is dying to ourselves and giving our own life up for the life God has for us. Dying to our kingdom and our ways and beginning to live for His Kingdom and His ways. But we won't do that if we think our life is the special life, a significant life that isn't worth giving up.

So the harsh truth is that we are insignificant. You. Me. All insignificant.

However, we find significance in living for the glory of God.

Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV).

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17 ESV).

Or the ending of Ecclesiastes. 

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. (Ecclesisates 12:13-14 ESV). 

We are insignificant, but we find significance in God.