I GOTTA BE A SOMEBODY

To prove that we have value and significance might be as great a driving force as hunger. In “The Significant Life,” George M. Weaver illustrates that we are so crazed to achieve significance, or at least name recognition, that we will commit acts that bring us condemnation rather than commendation:

·       In 2005 Joseph Stone torched a Pittsfield, Massachusetts apartment building… After setting the blaze, Stone rescued several tenants from the fire and was hailed as a hero. Under police questioning, Stone admitted, however, that he set the fire and rescued the tenants because, as summarized at trial by an assistant district attorney, he “wanted to be noticed, he wanted to be heard, he wanted to be known.” (44)

Evidently, our quest for significance is so powerful that it can overrule the moral dictates of conscience. One mass-murderer gunman explained in his suicide note, “I’m going to be f_____ famous.” (45)

This drive for significance can even override all other affections. On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman, a zealous fan of the Beatle, John Lennon, first obtained his idol’s autograph before gunning him down. He explained:

·       “I was an acute nobody. I had to usurp someone else’s importance, someone else’s success. I was ‘Mr. Nobody’ until I killed the biggest Somebody on earth.” At his 2006 parole hearing, he stated: “The result would be that I would be famous, the result would be that my life would change and I would receive a tremendous amount of attention, which I did receive… I was looking for reasons to vent all that anger and confusion and low self-esteem.” (47)

By attaching himself to someone greater, Chapman was able to elevate himself. Was it “low self-esteem” or merely Chapman’s own way to achieve what everyone else is trying to achieve – importance? Weaver reports that:

·       More than two hundred people confessed in 1932 to the kidnapping and murder of the infant son of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh. (50)

This is a testimony to human but desperate attempt to be a somebody. Our honor or self-respect is something that is more carefully guarded than our money. Disrespecting the wrong person can easily cost us our lives. Entire people groups are consumed by hatred towards those that they feel have deprived them of their due recognition and respect.

Is there not any release from this obsession? It seems that this is a thirst that is unquenchable. The richest man in the world, John D. Rockefeller had been asked “How much more money do you need to be happy?” His answer was highly revealing of our nature – “Always a little bit more.”

This suggests that we cannot give our neighbor what he needs to calm his soul. We can never give him enough affirmation or love, as most wives will gladly attest about their husbands’ egos. The need lies far deeper and is barely touchable by human hands and therapies.

Perhaps, instead, we have to lay aside the quest to prove our significance. Is there an alternative to this all-consuming obsession? Yes! We were made to find our significance and personhood within a relationship with the One who created us. We were never intended to float our own boat but to navigate His. Jesus put it this way:

·       "Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?' For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:31-33; NASB)

If we put Him first, He will put us first. This pertains to all of our needs, not just the physical ones. Paul had written that if God is for us, nothing can be against us (Romans 8:31-32), not even our obsessive craving to validate our self-worth. Instead, His worth and righteousness becomes our worth and righteousness:

·       I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Therefore, look to Him, where our own value resides. Turn away from the self in which you will find no rest.

We might not yet feel that these truths fit. However, we must practice, digest, and clothe ourselves with them until the Spirit makes them fit as precisely-tailored garments. These have proven a great relief from the tsunami of our inner cravings.