“I want to make my life count. I want to do big things for the kingdom. I only want to do things that have an eternal significance.”
Have you ever prayed such prayers? I know I definitely have.
In fact, when I was getting serious about my relationship with Christ, this is what I regularly prayed for because I wanted my life to count. I wanted to make a difference in this world. I didn’t want to live for what was temporal—my fame and my glory—but for what was eternal.
And the only way that I knew how to judge whether or not something was a “big thing” for the kingdom was by its size. This is what I thought:
- Small churches = small impact
- Small conferences = not significant
- Small platform = lack of the right gifting
Years later, after God broke me and stripped away everything I had, I realized my ambitions weren’t as pure as I made them out to be.
Sure, I said that I wanted to make a big impact for the kingdom, but that was contingent upon me making the big impact for God. Yes, I obviously wanted to do things that had an eternal significance, but only if I could share that eternal significance with God…
I tried to sanctify my ambition with the right words, but it was all a sham.
Now to be fair, I wasn’t doing it intentionally; it was just that my heart was deceived. I thought that if I said the right things and did the right things, I would eventually believe the right things, but boy, did I ever have it backwards.
You can’t accelerate maturity or spiritual growth.
I was trying to sanctify myself, when in fact, it’s God who does the sanctifying in us as we lay ourselves before him. (If you want to learn how I worked through that desert experience, click here).
In The Disciple Maker’s Handbook: 7 Elements of a Discipleship Lifestyle by my friends, Bobby Harrington and Josh Patrick, they call this the performance myth. I was trying to define myself through my accomplishments, instead of what God had already accomplished for me through Christ.
Bobby and Josh put it well,
Most Christians want to devote their lives to something significant. Deep inside they want to make some kind of difference in the world, to leave a mark, a lasting legacy. It is a longing for significance to do something great with their lives. But for many Christians, this desire gets distorted and hijacked because they have bought into one of the prevailing myths of our world. (11)
Here are the five myths as outlined in The Disciple Maker’s Handbook:
- The Performance Myth: The best way to make your life count is through personal accomplishments others can see.
- The Comfort Myth: Do everything you can to avoid pain and discomfort, and you’ll have a great life.
- The Generosity Myth: Find the latest and trendiest cause and go all in—show that you are a giver!
- The Money Myth: Earn as much as you can…save as much as you can…a great legacy is all about financial security.
- The Pleasure Myth: You only live once, so live it up…make that bucket list and do it all.
Which of these myths have you struggled with? Or are currently struggling with?
For as long as you see your life’s purpose to fulfill one of these myths, you will never be able to devote yourself fully “to the greatest cause on earth—being a disciple of Jesus, who makes disciples.” (12)
They go on to say,
Our achievements and our comforts will be long forgotten. Our generous moments will be remembered, but will the cause to which we contributed be the one that ultimately matters in eternity? Our money will have no value. Our pleasures in this world will be gone. The items on our bucket list that have nothing to do with knowing, trusting, following, treasuring, and proclaiming Jesus will look like utter foolishness.
What can make our lives so different is an unwavering commitment to follow Jesus. His life was filled with purpose, mission, and eternal impact. His life was so remarkable because of his unwavering commitment to reaching lost people and making disciples. He poured his life into the mission to redeem humanity, and, in the process, he raised up just a few people. Then he commanded them to do the same with others. In so doing, he started a revolution that changed world history (12-13).
Next Steps:
- Purchase a copy of the book for your team
- Follow Bobby Harrington and Josh Patrick on Twitter
- Learn more about the Disciple Making Forum that I’ll be speaking at here