Time and our Significance

 Look at the stars. It is easy to see ourselves as insignificant in light of the incredible expanse of the universe. We long to mean something, to leave a legacy—and I think that echoes the calling that God created us to be vice-regents over creation in His Image. As such, we’d have a powerful significance. Yet, it was frustrated, thwarted by Eve’s choice in that Garden. Work was cursed and became more futile, more struggling, more mundane…. Daily life, our life, seems to get lost.   

But are we, as a single individual, lost in time?

No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 1 Corinthians 2:7

Where are you in this? God kept something before time in store for YOU. For YOUR GLORY.

God, “who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time…” 2 Timothy 1:9

When did God’s purpose start? Gen. 1:1?

When was grace given to YOU?

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. Eph. 1:4-6

When did He choose YOU?

What did He choose YOU for?

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. Eph. 1:18-20

What are the two things that YOU have?

Will what we do matter?

First, 100 years from now—do you know where you will be? You will be with Jesus. You will be immortal, shining, resplendent… You will have crowns snatched from this earth, stolen for the little things in life, the smiles, the words of encouragement, the sharing of Jesus, the cup of cold water given in His name…. Do you know that? KNOW that?

This is one of my favorite quotes from C.S. Lewis:

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics… You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.

C.S. Lewis, Weight of Glory

You are a being that was known before time, and you are a being who is immortal, who has no end. But that would be dreary without a purpose….

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

   before you were born I set you apart;

   I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Jer. 1:5

Yes, this is to Jeremiah, but we have the same God.

The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;

   your love, O LORD, endures forever—

   do not abandon the works of your hands.

Ps. 138:8

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Eph. 2:10

When did God think about YOUR purpose?

You are part of the “royal priesthood, a holy nation,” (1 Pet. 2:9), part of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27) and you have unique gifts (Eph. 4:11-13) to contribute. God formed you, He knows your time, he knows the hairs on your head, He knows your gifting.

From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.  God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. Acts 17:26-27

Why are you here? Right now? Why are you in your community right now? Why are you of a certain ethnicity, gender, age, with a certain hair color? The above verse says why (and in the context of the whole Bible).

I know the feeling of being seemingly useless, futile, insignificant… But this I am learning: I matter to Him. And that makes all the difference.

So will anyone remember you or I in 100 years? Maybe not on this earth. But you won’t be around to care. You will be overseeing kingdoms up in heaven. You will be finding that fulfillment that we can’t find on earth after the Fall. But now does matter. This is where we train. This is where we get our crowns to lay at the feet of Jesus. This is where we shape ourselves to be “immortal splendors.” But we have significance beyond our imagining because Christ died for us and reconciled us to God, and the Holy Spirit is now sanctifying us so we will be presented before God on that judgment day, pure and blameless (1 Cor. 1:8-9; Eph. 5:22-26; Jude 24). 

You are a person who has a history longer than this world.

You are a person who will live longer than any civilization or nation or monument on this earth.

You are a person who was handcrafted by God, for now, for such a time as this (Esther). This might look different than what we long for—but we will be fulfilled in heaven.

You are dear and known intimately, by name, by hairs, by the very Creator of the Universe who holds the stars in His hands. And you can come before Him boldly because of Christ.

You are the most Holy of Holies, (naos in Greek, 1 Cor. 3:16; 1 Cor. 6:18), and the very God dwells in you.

Ask Jesus, “Jesus, what do I mean to you?” And just listen to Him and let Him tell you.

As I conclude, I go forth as a child of God, who has the Holy Spirit in me, who knows that somehow God will use this day, and I might not see it until heaven. But maybe today will get another ruby in my crown—so that I can lay it down before my Jesus, because I am, after all, “for the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:12). My boss is the one who is “above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” (Eph. 1:21-23).