Exposing Holes In Pursuit of Wholeness: Part 1 (Significance)

This is a five-week application of the first chapter in More Than Forgiveness, by Steve DeNeff.

Every person is starving, thirsting, striving. We are human beings made in the image of God. We are fallen creatures with eternity set in our hearts. We are sinful, searching for holiness. We are broken, expecting perfection. Because of the Fall we experience emptiness inside. Because we were alienated from God we turn to anything else to fill those holes.

As pastor and author Steve DeNeff explains, those holes are identified by five basic needs: significance, security, innocence, intimacy and hope. These desires themselves do not make us evil. They are distinctive to every human being. It's that we seek to fulfill these desires in foolish and perverted ways; through the Fall. The needs won't change, but how we fill them can. We will experience wholeness in Christ when we meet these needs through holiness.

For the next five weeks we will select one need and examine our hearts for six straight days, deciphering how we meet these needs: in perverse, foolish ways (through the Fall) or through holiness. Please understand, this is not a five-step program to holiness. Holiness is a deeper transformation than conscious decisions. This is merely an attempt to become aware of the ways we fill these needs and when we are most vulnerable to succumb to the Fall.

Read the description of the need (adapted from the first chapter of DeNeff's book) and my predictions of how we may fill it perversely. At the end of each night during the week, reflect on your day and write down occasions when you filled the need through the Fall. By the end of the week, hopefully we can avoid these temptations and begin building habits that will lead to subconscious transformation.


We'll start with significance.


We all want to matter, to be acknowledged, to be important; we all want dignity. Through the Fall we fill this need through pecking orders and hierarchy; we climb the ladder through any means necessary; we build ourselves up and tear others down; we are competitive, suspicious and critical; we are busy; we are aching to impress others and ourselves; we fill our need of significance through power and pride.

But in holiness, we satisfy this need through service and humility. "We still want to matter, but to whom we matter is less important." We give credit to others, seeking only the praise of God. We don't think less of ourselves, we think of ourselves less. We carry each other's burdens, and at the same time, we are not a burden to others. We no longer want something else or something more, we accept what we're given and "seek only to accomplish what we were destined to accomplish."

The question this week: Where do you find significance? Through power and pride or through service and humility?

Here are some situations inspired by the Fall that may pop up this week:

--You verbally tear someone else down to elevate yourself. You may not raise, but they lower. And they may not even be present when you do it!
--You take credit for something you didn't do or without acknowledging those who made it possible.
--You announce your own accomplishments (Proverbs 27:2)
--You make obstacles seem larger than they were to inflate the magnitude of the accomplishment.
--You take ownership of something that's not yours.
--You order someone to help you rather than offering to help them.
--You point the finger rather than take responsibility.
--You seek praise and acknowledgement from the top of the food chain, and ignore those on the bottom.

Any others?

Don't beat yourself up, but take notice of how you fill your emptiness. This will be an incredible, transforming journey. Enjoy the ride!