It's Okay Now

“Surely he couldn’t be serious.”

It was 1997 and I was in Guangzhou, China sitting across the table from one of the greatest men I have ever met. His name was Dr. Samuel Lamb and he was one of the leaders of the Chinese House Church Movement.   Dressed in the grey government-sanctioned clothing that was customary for the Chinese people during that time, he may have looked quite simple, yet the impact with which he had lived his life was unrivaled. As a young seventeen-year-old, I certainly never thought I’d hear all that I heard that day. With great conviction he spoke of his many years of ministry and of the persecution. He spoke in factual detail and without remorse.

The Strange Request

Dr. Lamb had begun preaching decades prior to our meeting. After preaching for a few years, he was arrested and put in jail for three years with the charge of disobeying the government’s rules concerning religion.  When he returned from prison in 1957 his congregation had exponentially increased in size to several hundred people.  In 1958 he was imprisoned for the second time, and this time for over 20 years.  When he was released to his church he found that there were now thousands in attendance.  After being jailed and released a third time, he saw once again that the church had grown in size.  When we visited him, his very small building had two stories and they were having multiple weekly services for around 4,000 people.

The growth of the church and the impact was amazing. However, it was Dr. Samuel Lamb’s strange request that caused my western mind to come to a halt…  Click here for the full blog on Destiny In Bloom.

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I’m not sure about you, but I tend to think on scales.  Go big or go home, right?  If you’re going to do something, make it memorable. If you’re organizing an event, make it as big as possible.  If you’re writing a card, make them cry. If you’re going to change something, change the world. Right?  Or not?

What if true significance is so much less (and actually much, much more) than that?

How do we know if what we are doing is significant?

This question has been one that I have labored over for years and years.  In fact, if you were to ask me how I would know if my life was significant, my answer would have something to do with something big and possibly flashy.

Maybe I was dead wrong.

Significance isn’t usually made in the flashy moments or the romantic moments.  Significance of life is birthed the minute your life was significant to another person’s life.  Arnita Taylor said that a couple months ago, and I haven’t been able to shake it.

My life was changed by…

• The person who listened to me when I lost my job.
• The person who told me what was True when I was afraid of everything.
• The person who opened their home to me when I had nowhere to live.
• The person (people) who spoke the right thing to me at the precise time I needed to hear it.

Those lives have been more significant to me than I could ever express.  Their contributions and love for me in my lowest moments… no one may never touch that place.  They may not be writing bestsellers, speaking to thousands, running corporations or countries, but in my life they have born more significance than any bestselling author will ever dream to.

Like Arnita said, if you’ve had one significant moment than your life has significance.Tweet