It may sound strange but what we most desire is not what we think we’re looking for. We may think that we’re looking for success, fame or money, but really what we’re all striving for is this elusive thing called significance. All of us, without exception, hunger for significance. Abraham Maslov called it “self-actualisation” and he put it on the very peak of his pyramid of human needs.

We have an unquenchable need to feel that we add up to something; that our life does matter; that it counts for something. We ask questions like: “Am I still your friend?; “Shall I put on this red blouse or that black one?”; “How did my talk go?”; Did I do okay at the piano?”; “Could you hear me sing?” Each of those questions betray our desperate need to feel significant.

But most of us look for significance in the wrong place. We think that if we could only be smarter, better-looking, or richer, then perhaps we might feel more significant. But that road always ends up with the same two boring predictable results: indulgence or performance, with some kind of an addiction thrown in. And it never gets us what we want.
 
And yet when someone remembers your name; welcomes you into their lives; accepts you into their circle, you come alive!
   
That’s because your significance is never derived from what you have or what you do. It is who you are that makes you valuable. And you are already a significant person. You are a child of God, and that alone spells your tremendous worth. When God made you in His own image, He made you for significance. And He has totally and unconditionally accepted you. “We have been justified and we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” Romans 5:1. In God’s eyes, you are worth more than all the gold billions stockpiled at Fort Knox.

Rest quietly in the simple fact that God deems you supremely worthy. Enjoy affirming this truth in your mind and heart and be set free from the performance trap.