Success vs Significance

Three of the most important questions: 1) Where do you want to go with your life? 2) How are you going to get
there? And 3) Once you have arrived, what are you going to do?

What is more important, being successful or being significant person? And why?

The first question deals with your goals, the second with your ethics, and the third your significance as person.

3 groups of people:

(1) People seeking only to survive in life(unsuccessful) - They are the ones who do as little as possible. Content with
minimal input, they are satisfied with minimal reward. They are not the ones who make things happen. Sadly enough,
far too many people fall into the first category.

(2) Successful People - The next group is the one who have clearly defined goals, and they reach them. They are the
ones who are successful. But having reached their goals, many of these dynamic, driving successful people find that life
still has no purpose or meaning.

What is success?

1.) “Success is an event that accomplishes its intended purpose.” - Success as an event is a limited kind of success.
Events change. Circumstances change.
2.) “Success is not an event, but a journey” - everyone is on a journey, but most would agree that not all are
“successful”. So what is it about a particular journey that makes it successful?
3.) Some define success in terms of financial results – the accumulation of money and/or income streams.

You are not successful if your family life is a mess. Or your emotional life. Or your health. So you have to look at all
these things and work out what success means for you. What if you achieved everything you set out to achieve in this
life, and then spent eternity in hell because you lived a life without respect to God and His Word? Would such a life
be successful?

“Success is adding value to yourself”. Many people are interested in adding value to themselves, and there is
nothing wrong with that. If you don’t add value to your own life at some stage, you might not be able to do much of
any value to others either.

 The accumulation of business skills, knowledge, natural wisdom, financial resources, emotional/relationship skills
and personal health sums up pretty much what most people today think success is all about. Those things are good to
have provided of course you use them for a good purpose. Its not wrong to want to be successful. But there is a
bigger thing in life than being successful: being a person of SIGNIFICANCE.

(3) Significant People - Those who lead significant lives are not necessarily wealthy, nor famous, nor in demand. They
are the ones, however, who touch the lives of others in such a way that our world is a better place as the result of what
they did.

What is Significance?

1.) A measure of the value you add to OTHERS. It could be achieved directly or indirectly. It could be recognized by
others. It may not be. Significance then does not depend only on what other people THINK – though. Many times,
the people who add value to others in a significant way become very successful in the process.
2.) Carrying out the meaning that God placed in our lives when He created us.
3.) It is the degree that the object meets its intended use or potential. A closely related issue is that of having a
feeling that we are important in some way.

Wag kalimutan ang plano ng Diyos sa buhay mo kahit ikay pinagpapala na ng panginoon, do not focus on appetizer
Jesus therefore is amongst other things the epitome of human significance. He was the most significant human being
who ever lived on the planet. He is the most significant person alive today!

The apostle Paul was looking for a significant life when he said:

1Co 10:33 just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be
saved.

There we have it. We are commanded to apply ourselves to this process of becoming significant people from an eternal
perspective. Success or our own profit has no value if it is not required as a step towards achieving that SIGNIFICANCE of
bringing many souls to Christ.

If you are wealthy, if you are clever in business, if you have money and time – praise the Lord. However, do not be
content to be merely “successful”. “He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver” as the book of Ecclesiastes 5:10
says. The answer then to this lack of satisfaction is not simply to be “even more successful” – that is to have even more
assets, even better friends, even better family, even better health. The answer is to have a life of eternal significance.
Eternally significant people are quite rare today it seems. Ask God to change your mindset so you can be one of them.

It is time to be rich towards God. Give your life to God through Jesus Christ and you will have a life of significance, a
life that adds value to other people for time and eternity, and God will surely give you a reward.

It is never too late to change directions in life. Some people strive for survival; some for success. But some achieve
significance, and with that level of accomplishment comes the peace of God that means your life was worth living.
Don’t simply occupy space on Planet Earth. With God’s help make your life count for something lasting and
worthwhile.

The World’s System

From the world’s point of view—without God in the picture—each of us is in competition with all others to obtain the
scarce resources of life in order to meet our needs. We want to feel that we are important or significant in life and that
we count for something. The problem is that the world believes that each of us, as our own god, must determine our
own destiny and then compete with others in order to achieve it. Of course, in the world’s system, only a few make it to
the top, and those who do will soon be replaced by the generation that follows.

The world is filled with pride. Each of us wants to become somebody, be important, and do something significant in
life. It should humble us to understand that almost nothing that we do or attempt to do will even be known two hundred
years from now.

In our drive for worldly success, one of the premises of our societal system is that significance must be obtained at the
expense of others in our society. We are all in competition but we cannot all be significant. This is called the “rat race.”

1. We are stressed by our competitive life style. we view all others in our society as competitors for a limited resource
called success. Because this competitive way of viewing life pervades our entire society, we are stressed about almost
everything in our lives.

2. Eventually, we all lose. It might seem negative, but it is a fact of life that eventually all lose in this worldly fight for
significance. If you continue to win, eventually you will grow older, and will be beaten by a younger, stronger competitor.
If you set a world record, eventually someone will surpass your accomplishment, and your great success will be forgotten.

3. We are driven to take on more than we can easily accomplish. Although talent is highly rewarded in the world’s
system, it also has its downside. The more talented we are, the more opportunities we will be given to take on more and
more difficult tasks. Because we feel each promotion makes us more significant, we are driven to take on more and more
difficult tasks. One well-known statement concerning this issue is “the higher you go, the harder you fall.”
4. We are taught to sacrifice character in order to accomplish things. With this as the predominant message in our
society, it is not difficult to understand why the number of high-ranking politicians and corporate executives charged with
ethical violations or crimes seems to be increasing.

5. Anxiety has become a major factor in our failures. The anxiety from a fear of failure can prevent us from even trying
something, it can lead us to an all-or-nothing mentality, and it can drive us to try too hard to be successful. All of these
can lead to failure, which in turn leads to more dysfunctional attempts to succeed and more failure.

6. We are losing our soul for the sake of success in this world. Unfortunately, even many Christians are not aware that
we have been caught up in this “rat race” of life. It can cost us our families, will do damage to the quality of our lives, and
will limit our ability to be fruitful in the Kingdom of God. If we think that we have accomplished anything and take the
credit for it, we have fallen into the trap of pride. A prideful attitude states that we do not appreciate what God has done
for us, and that we do not need God. For our own good, God will resist our success and will bring us low until we realize
that everything that we have is a gift from him.

Because each of us has been designed and called for a specific purpose, we are not in competition with others, but with
ourselves to become all that God has called us to be and do. We are running different races; therefore, the Bible warns us
that if we compare ourselves with others, we are not wise.

2 Co 10:12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves:
but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

The fact that God has adopted us into His family makes us so significant that there is absolutely nothing that we can do
to make ourselves any more significant. The fact that God has already made us children of the ruler of the universe, joint
heirs with Christ (we will own a huge chunk of the universe), selected us to be on the team that will rule the universe, has
provided a throne for us, and has declared us to be righteous through faith elevates us far beyond anything we can do in
our own efforts in this lifetime. This is our position in Christ. What can we do on this earth that is so important that it will
make us more significant than this?

We must accept that we are already significant because of who we are in Christ, reject the world’s system of trying to
establish our significance through worldly accomplishments, and be willing to accept what God has called us to do, even if
it appears worthless in the eyes of the world.