Skip to main content

What It Isn't

Every once in a while, it is good to review your purpose. Here is a post from last year where I defined what I was focused on.

 I started talking about the purpose of insignificance and this blog and how I can both achieve and fail at my goal of finding insignificance by building a bigger platform for this blog.

And I was just about to sell you on joining me in this journey when I decided you'd read enough of my words for one day. So here we are now, and you're ready for some more words. Words of what? I'm not sure yet. I'll write some words, you read them. Then you can decide and tell me what kind of words they are. Then, if necessary, I'll cry myself to sleep.

If I told you I was on a journey for some big treasure, you might wonder what kind of treasure. You might ask me questions about how long the journey would be, what we need to take along, or if I'd been watching too manyPirates movies. These would all be great questions.

But I'm going to start by telling you what insignificance isn't.

Insignificance is not obscurity.
This might be a huge load off of your mind. After all, you may already feel invisible to many people. You may not want to be the life of the party, but it's not like you don't wish to be invited either.

Insignificance is not being worthless.
There's already enough voices in your world, trying to weigh your worth. Whether you are at your job or at school, with friends or with smurfs (who am I to judge?), or listening to voices of knowledge or just the voices inside your head; you should never equate being insignificant with being worthless. Totally. Different.

Insignificance is not lacking purpose.
I'm not going to go all Rick Warren on you and give you 5 purposes in 40 days or anything like that. But don't be fooled into thinking that when I say I want to pursue insignificance it means I want to crawl into my man-cave and spend all my time playing video games and eating pizza. My job as a youth pastor can give enough of those opportunities...sort of, but not really.

Well, I would like to start sitting back in my chair, gaze into your soul and ask you if you're ready to journey with me. You might be thinking that it's nice to know what insignificance isn't, but it'd be even better to know what it is. Touche, my friend, I am one step ahead of you. Or, at least, next Tuesday's post is one step ahead of you.

If you've been searching for insignificance as well, what else would you say it isn't?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Accountable

I recently officiated a wedding. The ceremony was simple, lovely, and ended with another couple professing to keep the covenant of marriage. But it all started with a clarification...from me. At our first premarital counseling session, as I have done with every couple I have agreed to marry, I clarified a couple of matters. First, I officiate Christian weddings, where both spouses-to-be are professing Christians. I firmly believe that marriage is difficult enough, without adding disagreements about God into the mix. Second, as a minister of Jesus Christ, I believe the pastor’s role in a wedding is to represent the blessing of God on that union. So we have several sessions of premarital counseling where we discuss married life. It’s not that I have this imaginary card in my head, with a picture of me on the front and my stats on the back. (You know, like a baseball card.) Ok, I do picture cards. Pastor cards! And being a competitive guy, I want my stats to look good. The number of coupl

Patience

I am more than halfway through the last year of dropping one of my children off at school. It's my eighth grade daughter, for anyone keeping track of my family.  See, next year she will be at the high school, and her brother will drive her. He says that it's not cool for seniors to drive their freshman sister to school, but I bet it's cooler than being dropped off by your mom in a minivan.  So rather than groan about this daily responsibility, I've been reminiscing about what the drop-off line used to look like, way back in elementary school. Once our children were about halfway through their elementary years, the drop-off line became a test of patience.  Do you know which group you do not want to get caught behind in the parent drop-off line at an elementary school? The kindergartners. These little ones are barely able to walk, but now we put them in the high-pressure situation of trying to unbuckle their seat-belt, grab their backpack (which might be as tall as they a

Jury Duty

I was recently summoned to jury duty. I know, groan. Except I didn't. I had never experienced it before and was curious to see what it was like.   When the day to report arrives, they separate you into groups, asking various questions to decide if you will be selected to serve. Do you know the accused? Do you have conflicts that would keep you from serving? Can you stay focused?  I wanted to answer well, if only because my kids kept wishing me luck the day before, telling me they hoped I made the team. After all, who wants to be rejected? It occurred to me that there are things you probably shouldn’t say right away if you’re wanting to serve on a jury. I know, I know, people don’t typically want to serve on a jury. But that list didn’t seem nearly as humorous to me. Here are the things you probably shouldn’t say if you want to be selected for jury. I hold myself in contempt. You can’t handle the truth. We find the defendant guilty. I believe the judge looks pretty in his robe. I’d