I can’t tell you how much of my life has been wrapped up in “doing” – getting things done, performing, striving to meet what I perceive other’s expectations are of me and struggling to achieve my own expectations. Those who know me well would definitely characterize my life as always “busy” – ask me, “How are you?” in any conversation and you’re likely to get my most common answer, “Busy.” I have a constant drive to “do” and, in many cases, it has served me very well but today I’m left wondering what I may have missed along the way.

I just finished reading The Shack, a wonderfully life-changing book that has stirred deep things within my soul. (Thanks to my mother-in-law for recommending it!) One of the many things that is flipping around in my Spirit is a conversation in the book in which one of the main characters says, “If anything matters…everything matters” a response to the wonder if what is done in day-to-day life even really matters. Maybe I’m the only one that suffers from this wonder myself, but it plagues me.

I find myself prioritizing my day based on what I feel is going to make me the most significant. Somewhere along the way I’ve bought into the lie of performance being what makes me significant and, in turn, is what is deserving of the most respect and recognition. And I’m not really talking about just job performance, I think I do this in every area. First, by prioritizing the areas themselves…let’s see…God first, family second, job third (or so I say to be “right”) – but, to be honest, many times it’s job first, God second,…; or maybe it’s family first, job second, vacation planning…. – do you see what I mean? My priorities change based on what I deem (or think others deem) as more significant in the moment, many times leaving me with a prevailing sense of guilt and shame for not spending more time with family, not spending more hours at work, not praying or reading my bible that day (or the day before), not going to church or not doing a million other things that I think define my significance.

In the process of all this prioritizing, re-prioritizing and wondering if I prioritized right – I’m left to depreciate other less significant areas of my life. Maybe it’s going to the grocery store, playing a game of cards with my kids, doing yard work, cleaning house, talking on the phone to a friend, or stopping to talk to a neighbor. You see, these activities are just that – activities – and they can’t be of any real value because they aren’t as important as what I do at work, when I pray, or reading my Bible. These mundane, day-to-day activities are things that must get done, sure enough, but they just aren’t as stellar as the other stuff – especially when there’s more important stuff going undone because of them. But, could I be wrong? Actually, I believe I have been – for years.

To be really honest, the real problem here isn’t that I simply feel that one activity has a greater value than the other – it’s that I believe that one activity makes me more significant than the other. It’s a problem of works. It’s a problem of believing that I am significant because of what I do, more specifically what and how much important stuff I do. Boy am I wrong.

Willie, the author of The Shack, puts it this way on his blog entry of the same title, “The truth is this: ‘Significance originates from ‘being’, not from doing.’ Doing adds nothing to our significance and doing takes nothing away. Doing is directly related, not to significance, but is largely an expression of who we think we are. “As a person thinks in their heart, so are they (so they will act).” Because we are already significant, our choices and actions matter. It is not the choices that make us significant, it is our significance that make our choices meaningful. Every human being is significant by nature. They are imprinted with the very image of God, they are each the center of God’s love and goodness. True significance is individually wrapped up in the uniqueness of each person and each one being created in the image of God, regardless of what Madison Ave says, or how an individual may be damaged or broken.”

Did you get that? Read it again, seriously. We are significant by our nature because we are created in God’s image. Nothing we do – NOTHING – makes us any more or less significant in His eyes. We are simply significant to Him because we are. I know at this point you probably want to say, “Duh! Don’t you think I know that?” – it’s actually kind of how I feel about this revelation, too. But, really…… do you “head” know it or “heart” know it – there’s a big difference. Oh, for sure, I know that I’m made in the image of God and that He loves me and finds value in me. But, doesn’t He think just a little better of me if I pray everyday, or when I go to church, or when I do something great in His name – like lead someone to Jesus? I mean, come on, surely I’m more significant to God then say… Osama bin Laden? Nope.

The truth that I must wrestle with is that I am simply significant to God, no matter what I do, and one activity isn’t more significant or less significant than the other. I must learn to simply “be” in whatever place that I am and trust that through my significance in God, the activity itself does, in fact, matter. This doesn’t mean that I stop praying or reading my bible because they aren’t as important anymore, rather it means that I pray and read my bible not with a sense of obligation, because it’s the most important thing to do, but with a sense of awe because I realize the One who loves me and Created me is there – having communion with me. And when I step away from prayer to weed in my garden, play a game of solitaire on my computer, chop vegetables for dinner or chat meaninglessly with a co-worker – God is still pleased with me and doesn’t wish anything for me but that I simply “am” in that moment – being His.

I’ll close with another quote from Willie’s Blog, “To begin to think this way is no small change…it is the movement from one universe to another.”

Simply being,

To take this one step further…because we are each significant and what we do ‘matters’, we can each through our significance indwelt by the ‘Significant One’ change the universe by the way we love and see and hear and listen and speak etc. ‘Doing’ is simply walking in the present tense relationship with God that we are growing in, facing whatever it is that is in front of us today, and making choices or responding or being still or…

~ Willie