The Imporatnce of Insignificance

Working in the mountains changes your perspective on life. I work at a camp in the Rocky Mountains, just west of Denver, CO. I'm surrounded all the time by beautiful mountains. Summer camps take us on hikes up to a place we call the Lookout where you can see a 60 mile unobstructed view of the Continental Divide. And being an avid hiker, my friends and I have taken backpacking trips into the back country of Colorado, to trails where we see no one for days at a time, only mountains and animals. It inspires feelings that I don't normally welcome.

When you are out in wilderness like that, you get a view of how small you really are. Surrounded by millions upon millions of trees, rocks that tower hundreds of feet over your head and chasms that plunge deep into the earth, my insignificance in the grand scheme of life comes charging to the front of my mind. That's not exactly the ego boost I tend to enjoy.

Maybe you've experienced those feelings of insignificance. I've felt them all over the country--marveling at the towering waterfalls and granite faces of Yosemite, anticipating the predictable, yet unique blast of steam from Old Faithful geyser, edging carefully toward the edge of the unimaginable depths of the Grand Canyon, gazing across the endless expanse of the Atlantic Ocean. Even a calm evening at camp, away form the lights of the city, the dark velvet sky alive with ice-white stars, reminds me of my littleness.

And like I said, those feelings of insignificance are not our favorite feelings in the world. We don't like thinking that we might not actually be as influential as we think. we enjoy feeling like we matter, like we're significant.

But I'm not sure that those are feelings God really wants.

As I read the Bible, I'm impressed more and more by my insignificance in the face of God's awesomeness. It's one of the major themes of the Bible. God is bigger than kings and kingdoms; He's bigger than gods and idols; He's bigger than my own plans for myself.

Don't agree with me? Check out Isaiah 6, Psalm 2 and 139, Revelation 1, Job 38-41 and Isaiah 40 and tell me how you feel after that. Even something like the last part of the book Daniel, where we see God's total and complete mastery of world history and future makes me feel insignificant in the grand scheme of things. These chapters and more describe a God that is bigger than any object in the universe, wiser than any person in the universe, and stronger than any force in the universe. He and His purposes cannot and will not be changed or affected. If there is anyone significant in this world, it's God, not me.

"What about the cross?" you ask. "That proves I'm significant right?" In a way, yes. It shows us that God loves us immensely. But not because of us. He didn't die on the cross because of any intrinsic value that we hold in us. He died on the cross, He showed His love in that way because He choose to.

The cross is not merely a testament to the extent of God's love for us, it's a demonstration of how horrendously we've messed things up with our sin. Because our sin problem was so deep and so depraved, God had to go to the extreme lengths of killing His own Son to redeem us. The fact that my evilness caused that pain and suffering to the God of the universe makes me feel even smaller than all the wonders of the natural world.

We don't welcome feelings of insignificance. But they are important feelings that we ought to embrace and learn from. Isaiah 40 tells us why. After a lengthy description of our awesome God, Isaiah points out that everyone else will falter, even those who we tend to think are strongest and most energetic. But if we seek strength from our God (who is bigger and stronger) we will soar. Our insignificance drives us to dependence.

So the next time mountains seem to dwarf you, rejoice that though you are small, your God is big. The next time mountains soar far above, praise God He is higher than they are. We ought to embrace our insignificance in this universe. It emphasizes His significance and our need for dependence.