Dear Church Family,

Both Sunday and Wednesday were a blessing as our attendance grows. We baptized a precious child in the 11:00am service and we rejoice over the many testimonies that results in God’s faithfulness here at Lakeside and beyond. Please pray for our various ministries and as the LORD leads you, serve as well. I heard this message by Tim Tebow and thought it might encourage you—

SIGNIFICANCE RATHER THAN SUCCESS

When I was at the University of Florida, for every home game, we would get in the bus at our hotel, and we would drive right by the stadium, and we would stop at what was called the Gator Walk. In every game I played there, there was probably 20,000 to 40,000 fans at this Gator Walk, ready to greet us as we get off the bus. I would see all these people and I got to tell you, there were a lot of voices that started to hit me.

One of the first voices that instantly hit me was pride and arrogance, because I would look out and I would see 1000s of jerseys with my number on them. I would look out and I would see Bible verses that they were wearing because I wore them. And so, for a second, you thought, “Dang, I’m something. They’re here for me. This is pretty cool. I must be somebody.”

There’s a picture that I stumbled across, and it’s one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential images of all time, and it’s the picture of this young girl. She’s on her way from her village to a feeding center not far away, and she’s so malnourished, and she’s moving so slow that this vulture is waiting to attack. So the young man that took this picture. I think there was probably something in his heart that he wanted to do good. He just wasn’t sure, so he captured this picture, and he just waited, and then the vulture got closer. So he kind of shooed the vulture off, and then he walked away, and the vulture would come right back.

And he was told because of some of the sicknesses in the areas, “Don’t touch anybody. Don’t do anything.” And so he didn’t. He didn’t. He did nothing because apparently the cost was too much. So he left.

The New York Times published this photo in 1993. In 1994 he won the Pulitzer Prize for this photo. Four months after this, he chose to end his life. Every single one of us, we have a chance to be successful in life, and you know what? I hope you are. I really do. I hope you’re successful. There’s nothing wrong with being successful, but success is just about you. But significance is about other people. You see, that man that took that picture-he had success. That’s one of the greatest honors a photographer could ever have. But obviously, it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough. So what’s going to be enough for you?

You see, success is great. You can do a lot of things with it, but it’s not going to be fulfilling.

And you can never forget that sense of urgency-that it’s not about your timeline; it’s about their timeline. While you might have 30, 40, 50 years, they have days, minutes, moments. She had moments, but it wasn’t worth it to go pick her up. It wasn’t worth it to give her a hug. It wasn’t worth it to tell her about the gospel, “Yeah, I won a Pulitzer Prize, but what does it matter?”

What does it matter? It doesn’t, and I think the greatest tragedy in life is we’re going to look back one day and say, “I was successful in things that don’t matter.” I want you to be successful, but more than anything, I want you to be significant. And when you live for Jesus and you love people, I believe you’re going to have a life of significance.

Press On!

Mark