“So, what do you do?” The room turned to face me. It was my turn to introduce myself. I was standing in a group of several very successful college students; one had effectively organized a successful political student group, one was working on developing software, one had landed a dream advocacy job in Washington, D.C.
“I’m… a student!” I smiled ruefully. After I walked away from the conversation, I reflected on my answer and the ensuing conversation. In the back of my mind, I wondered, “Should I be doing something else? What can I do to get noticed?”
These thoughts surprised me. I’m a fairly involved student; I serve on several leadership boards; I take a good chunk of credit hours; I occasionally write for the student newspaper. Yet among that group of young people, I felt the need to step it up. To hit upon that one project or article or movement that would allow me to “make it big.”
We live in an age that constantly flashes us with other people’s accomplishments while at the same time reminding us to “not compare” ourselves to them. Either everyone else possesses a measure of self-control that I do not or everyone’s bluffing; comparison is inevitable.
Through this comparison, we come to the conclusion that simply showing up and being a good person isn’t sufficient. In order to make an impact, we need to be known.
A few days after I had that initial conversation, a good friend shared this article. It’s revolutionary in its very mundaneness; it advocates for a - can you believe it - quiet life.
My favorite quote from the article says, “To lead a quiet life doesn’t mean we lower our expectations; it means we lower our eyes. We look beside us. We look around us. Rather than gaping upward at the next trophy we’ll win, the next raise we’ll earn, we look beside us at the people whom God has placed in our lives for us to serve. And we consider their interests, their needs, more significant than our own (Phil 2:3). We shift our gaze from the “next big thing” to all the little things we miss when we’re mesmerized by the idols of bigger, better, bolder.”
In so many ways, the invitation to lead a quiet life gives us a breath of relief. It gives us the freedom to be inspired by the accomplishments of others, instead of daunted. It reminds us that our worth, our impact, our accomplishments will not be determined by how many projects we’ve led or startups we’ve made or books we’ve written.
It will be determined by much, much more important things, like how we treat the stranger in the grocery store, how often we call our little brother, and the services we complete without anyone ever knowing.
