The Emptiness Of Importance

The Emptiness of Importance

Have you ever heard of Peyton Manning or Tim Tebow? These men have experienced both the thrill of celebrity and the crush of defeat. In the book The Jersey Effect, Hunter Smith and Darrin Gray help us understand just how empty being important can be. Their fundamental assertion is that we live in a day where people are cultivated based on how well they perform, making them feel important.

But as Smith and Gray state, “Everything that man accomplishes can easily be undone. Peyton Manning, arguably the best quarterback to play the game—cut. Tim Tebow, the best thing that happened to Denver in 2011 . . . traded and forgotten.”^a

Knowing your value, outside of what you do, can be a powerful and liberating experience. True worth of the individual is given to us by God. The Declaration of Independence proclaims, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

We often allow the pursuit of happiness to lead us to decide what we will do with our lives. We derive so much importance from our success. But the biblical perspective is that we were made for life and liberty in a relationship with Christ. This leads to our happiness. The Bible declares our importance to God by showing us how much we are really worth to him.

John 3:16 tells us, “This is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” Don’t let success define your importance. Let your importance be defined by the one who sent his only son to stand in your place.

This is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16