How to be Significant like Biddy and Lettie

What does it mean to be significant?

I spoke at a luncheon in Louisville on this topic recently: the Significance Luncheon.

It’s designed for seniors, but it works for any age.

As the Southeast Christian Church hosts like to point out: “in the middle of the word significance are letters spelling I CAN.“

I love that observation.

They believe you’re never too old to do things of importance–particularly for the Kingdom of God.

I also don’t believe you’re ever too young to do significant things for the Kingdom of God.

Using events from Biddy Chambers’ and Lettie Cowman’s lives, I explained how.

How to be significant in someone else’s life

Let me count the ways both Biddy Chambers and Lettie Cowman changed people’s lives!

Not everyone will write a ground-breaking devotional still being read nearly a century later.

(Nor should we. As King Solomon commented, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” Ecclesiastes 12:12)

But there are simple ways to make a difference.

Here are a handful of suggestions for any age.

• Cook a meal
• Knit a scarf
• Help in a church setting
• Shelve books at the library
• Say hello to starngers
• Keep a smile on your face.
• Open doors for others.
• Let agitated folks go ahead of you in line.

Tailgators upset me until one day the thought came (is that you, Holy Spirit?) “maybe they’re in a hurry because someone is sick?”

I pulled over when it was safe and let them go by.

I do it all the time, now. (Though, there was that time the agitated driver zipped past me, sped around the curve and then drove off a cliff . . .)*

Biddy Chambers’ significant ministries

Okay, she compiled and put together all of Oswald Chambers’ books–especially My Utmost for His Highest.

But that wasn’t her whole life.

She practiced what I called, “the ministry of Interuption.”

Whenever someone came to her door, she dropped whatever she was doing (usually typing), invited them in, made tea, and listened while they poured our their hearts.

Her usual response when the petitioners ended their stories?

“We give all this to you, Lord. Amen.”

She also held her ministry (making of books) lightly. Like her husband, she believed when a ministry ended, it needed to end.

Scurrying around trying to raise money to keep a ministry going–no matter how significant it was during it’s initial momentum–was a bad idea. (Which is why she and Oswald turned down endowments for their Bible Training College.)

How was Lettie Cowman’s personal life significant?

Sure, Lettie helped found an international missionary organization and kept it running through the Depression and WWII, not to mention the Every Creature Campaign.

But Lettie’s personal interests in others affected many people.

Like her friend Biddy, Lettie took time to enjoy tea with people all over the world.

When things were worrisome in the ministry (like when she visited Shanghai during the Chinese Civil War), she sat at a piano singing and playing hymns with her entire soul.

It greatly encouraged the missionaries living there.

She loved visiting OMS missionaries around the world and usually brought gifts for the hardworking missionary women. Lettie liked to bring fabric and encouraging words, but also a listening ear to best understand the women’s hearts.

She loved them like a mother.

Similar ways Biddy and Lettie ministered

Both women gave away the books they produced. Lettie carried copies of Streams in the Desert on all her trips and handed them off to anyone interested.

Biddy refused to take any pay for producing her husband’s books (starting immediately after his death). She lived in poverty for many years to ensure anyone who needed My Utmost for His Highest could have a copy–often from her hands.

Both women poured the royalties from their devotionals back into ministry.

They both knew to hear a need and then patiently pray and wait for God’s direction.

Glory came from their listening skills

They wrote many letters, paid attention to the needs of those around them, and listened–over and over again.

We can all benefit from following their examples–and provide significant actions to those around us.

No matter how old or young we are.

Here’s a fuller list.

Please–feel free to add other ideas in the comments.

Tweetables

Simple ways to be significant in someone else’s life. Click to Tweet

How Lettie Cowman and Biddy Chambers treated friends with significance. Click to Tweet

*Not a high cliff–that was two bends further on. He ended up in a cow pasture, about 10 feet below the road. Nothing hurt except his pride.