What makes our lives significant?
“Most people achieve very few of (their) goals in their lifetimes, and even those who seem from a distance to lead charmed lives will sense that their true aspirations are thwarted as often as they are reached.”
This quote by Timothy Keller from the book Every Good Endeavor hit me like a punch in the gut.
When we are young, most of us launch into our lives full of ambition, hope, and optimism. But given enough time, we find ourselves exhausted. If we're honest, we're not exhausted because we're "so busy." We are busy, but what makes life exhausting is that it's incredibly hard. Nothing works the way it should. Our exhaustion is rooted in our disappointment, discouragement, frustration, and disillusionment.
What can reenergize us? What can give us the courage to dream again? What do we need to joyfully pursue the good work set before us with new joy and optimism?
A few years ago, the Lord led me to consider the story of the tower of Babel found in Genesis 11.
It's a short story about how the people of the world gathered together to build a tower to the heavens. Their stated goal for this project was to "make a name for" themselves (Genesis 11:4). God was displeased with this endeavor and thwarted their efforts by confusing their language, hindering their ability to communicate with one another and, ultimately, their ability to work together on this project.
The ESV commentary helped me get a better understanding of what's happening under the surface of this story.
“The tower is a symbol of human autonomy, and the city builders see themselves as determining and establishing their own destiny without any reference to the Lord. The Babel enterprise is all about human independence and self-sufficiency apart from God. The builders believe they have no need for God. Babel symbolizes humanity’s ambition to dethrone God and make the earth its own.”
Most of us aren't building literal towers to the sky, but we resonate with the urge to "make a name" for ourselves. We understand the desperate desire to work our way into significance. The tools of choice for the Babel project were bricks and hammers. Our tools look more like phones and the internet, sales and networking, ministry and service, or yoga and self-help books.
The work we do and the tools we use aren't the problem. In fact, work is a good gift from God given to us before Adam and Eve sinned. Our desire for significance isn't our problem either. We were made for dignity, glory, and significance.
Our problem is that no matter how hard we work or how much we accomplish, we still feel insignificant. We still feel that there is something better out there. We still live with the same hum of unease that we haven't done enough. And we rarely ask the question: enough for what?
We easily fool ourselves with "the grass is greener" thinking. If only I had more money, fame, a marriage, a happy family...
But even those with these things have shown us they still ache with unsatisfied longing. Famous comedian Jim Carrey once said,
“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”
This quote is only a recent example of what has been repeatedly communicated throughout history by those we assume "have it all."
Most of our angst and exhaustion would disappear if we could stop trying to work for our significance. But we're afraid to do that because we don't believe that Significance would move towards us unless we pursue it, earn it, and achieve it.
Our Tower of Babel lives makes the birth of Christ striking. We're so used to working our way up it's hard for us to believe that God might come down. We're so hurried trying to "make a name" for ourselves, but Christ was born to give us a new name with eternal significance (Revelation 2:17). We are so caught up in all our pursuits it might take us a minute to see that peace, joy, fulfillment, meaning in life come from daring to believe and receive that God is pursuing us.
At the end of time, none of us will be crowned heroes because of all we have achieved and accomplished. Those who trust in Jesus will be crowned because we have simply received and inherited the accomplishments of Christ.
The birth of Christ brings peace to our hearts because it reminds us that God is pursuing us, and His pursuit of us is what makes our lives significant.
Our reflection on the birth of Christ year after year is more than a tradition. Reminding ourselves that God came to us reenergizes us. Because Christ was born, we are able to hope and dream again. Though still hard and often frustrating, our lives aren't meaningless anymore. We've realized that we don't have to spend our lives on the pointless toil of making ourselves great apart from God. Instead, we now have the opportunity to lean all that we are (personality, talents, gifts, etc.) into taking hold of the life and love that Christ came to give to us. Instead of building something that will never work, we are now free to work for the good and eternal Kingdom of God. Instead of living with self-concern and self-focus, we wake up daily to the love of God and go about our days loving Him and the people around us.
