Success vs. Significance

Life can be a very delicate thing as a noun, but as a verb, it's quite powerful. The noun of life can be snuffed out in an instant with one careless mistake or fluke, no matter how healthy or powerful one may be. However, the verb life can not only add quality and substance to the noun of life, but it can actually last longer than the noun.

This past Sunday, Pastor Art Gorman delivered a message about our need to be significant. One point he made that has been resonating in my heart and mind is how to not get trapped in striving for success, but instead, living a life of significance. So many in our generation seem hell bent on striving for financial, material and professional success. While there is nothing wrong on the surface with pursuing excellence in everything we do, it's a hollow existence to have our success be our significance.

I want a life of significance. One of the things I'm most afraid of in moving from San Jose is the overwhelming task of completely starting over. Building a reputation from scratch. I guess I had to do that when I moved to San Jose, but for whatever reason, that didn't bother me. Maybe that was because I was a relatively young man of 31 when I relocated to the South Bay. I'm now 43.

Significance isn't standing in front of thousands of people and singing a song. Significance is impacting thousands of lives...one at a time.