Search for Significance

inSignificant

by Chris Travis

 

“Why you matter in the surprising way God is changing the world.” That’s the subtitle. If you’re looking for a bit of encouragement to be unselfish – this is the book for you.

We all want to live a life that matters. We all search for significance in our lives. This book basically tells you – help the ‘least of these’ – the ones who are needy. In that way, you’ll be significant. You help change others’ lives, and you’ll find your own destiny, your own purpose along the way.

The author based this book on two years of his life teaching in a bad school system in New York City. The book chronicles how hard things were the first year…how rebellious the students were, how it stripped him of hate. How he cried – more than ever. And how the acclaim and self-worth he had previously felt while being on staff at a church – was totally missing in this job.

His second year went better, he says, because he learned the lessons of the first year. After his second year, the school was shut down. He is now a pastor, planting a church in New York City.

From the description of the book, what I actually got was not quite what I expected. Maybe it’s just me. The ‘youth’ of the author came through quite clearly. Maybe I’m cynical – sometimes it comes with being middle-aged and having been knocked around by life a bit, but someone who only had one bad year out of their life – hard though it was – well – I didn’t get as much out of the book as I had originally hoped to.

Obviously, this book is written for the widest audience possible – as the author doesn’t take it for granted the reader knows much about how God works.

It’s not surprising that God can use anyone. It’s not surprising that we matter to God. So, for me, it wasn’t a surprising book at all. I had the book figured out before I was even halfway through it, but I was committed to reading the whole thing through the book review program. This was the first book I’ve reviewed in several years. It was the first one I was hoping would actually ‘help’ me with my own issues of ‘significance.’

It didn’t, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be encouraged by it. This book is published by Bethany House and is available through www.ChristianBook.com.