Do You Feel Insignificant?

In this third installment of the Saga of the Two Giant Brothers, we return to the conversation between you and Liar Giant, who had just released a slew of negative accusations against you.

If you missed the first two parts, you can take a look back to catch up:

The story goes on

Now thoroughly depressed, you hold the clear glass bottle back out to Liar, but he refuses to take it.

“Like I already told you, that bottle belongs to you. In fact everything I have here in my sack is yours.”

“Well I don’t want them,” you retort. “I’m leaving. I want to talk to Hider about that diamond.”

“He won’t talk to you,” counters Liar. “In fact, he can’t even hear you or see you until my sack is empty. This stuff is yours, and I’m tired of lugging it around.”

“Well in that case I’ll just go home.”

“I thought you were after a diamond,” gibes the giant, smirking.

Resigned, you sit down on the earthen path and stare up at the brute, waiting. After rummaging around in his burlap bag for thirty seconds or so, he pulls out a blue, palm-sized velvet bag, closed at the top with drawstrings. As you take it from him, the weight of the object contained by the bag causes you to steady it with your other hand. “What’s in here?” you ask.

“Open it.”

From the velvet bag you dump a heavy crystal sphere about the size of a baseball into your hand. Inspecting it further, you notice that it’s actually a rather fancy-looking globe of the Earth. “Nice,” you say. “Thanks. I’ll put it on my desk.”

“No need to thank me. I can’t give you a gift that’s already yours, can I?” asks Liar. “That’s just not how these things work.”

“Ok,” you respond. “This isn’t as bad as a bottle full of things about myself that I didn’t want to hear. What else do you have for me?”

“Not so fast, Tiny. You haven’t guessed what’s inside the globe.”
After speculating for a moment you reply “Um, glass?”

“And glass is made of?”

“Molecules?”

“And molecules are made of?”

Impatiently you inhale deeply and answer in one breath, “Molecules are made of atoms; and atoms are made of protons, neutrons, and electrons; and protons and neutrons are made of quarks; and it doesn’t get any smaller than electrons and quarks. Hey! Maybe I learned more in school than I thought!”

“Sure you did, Small Fry,” says the giant, “but I did too. Quarks are actually low energy particles that flash in and out of existence all the time. The purpose of that globe is to remind you that you are even smaller and more insignificant than one quark in that crystal. In this great, big world, you amount to just about nothing.

“Well, now I guess I won’t be putting in on my desk after all.”

The hidden prophet

Tucked away in an almost forgotten, seldom considered book of the Old Testament is the two-chapter, thirty-eight-verse book of Haggai. He’s one of the least-known people in the Bible today, and even during his lifetime he was passed over and under-appreciated. God saw to it that Haggai was the perfect position to help us deal with our own feelings of insignificance.
Haggai’s one mission in life was to motivate God’s people to do something great for Him, namely the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. According to the Bible, the people of Judah began to obey when Haggai (speaking words given to him by God) announced to them the three simple but challenging stages in the restoration of the temple.

First Stage: Two times in the first chapter Haggai tells God’s people to “consider your ways.” In context he was asking them, “Do you do the things you do for God or for yourselves? This sparked their enthusiasm. One key to overcoming feelings of insignificance is to work as unto the Lord, because only the work that we do for Him will be truly satisfying.

Second Stage: A month and a half later, God (through Haggai) asked, “Does anyone remember the splendor of the former temple? This one must seem of so much less significance to you than Solomon’s Temple.” The people must have been depressed because the new construction did not even begin to compare to the old one, which had been destroyed. Haggai then delivered the important message that God told them to stay strong. Keep it up! Push harder! I AM WITH YOU! They may have felt that they had already given all they had to give, but God promised that His Spirit was with them and that they should not be afraid.

Third Stage: Three and a half months after they began, the people of Judah heard from God again. He had promised, “In a little while this place will outshine the old temple. It’s future glory will far surpass that of its past because I will fill it with MY glory.” And He did; at first with just gold and silver. But then He vowed to bring peace in that place, and years later He filled that temple with Himself in the form of Jesus, who preached there. There can be no more significance than that!

In God’s economy, what we perceive as greatness often does not matter at all, and the smallest thing done for Him in accordance with His desires can be of immeasurable worth. He fills our work done for Him with His glory.

The work that Haggai and the people of Judah did there all those years ago contributed to the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world, and their labor was therefore far bigger than any of the workers could have imagined. Your work very well may be of the same caliber and you might not even have a clue!

Remember!

Most of us get down from time to time and wonder what difference we can make in such a big world. Remember the three stages when you feel insignificant:

1. Work for God in all you do.
2. Stay strong – God is with you!
3. Let God supply significance.