> [!note] New — 2026-03-18 ![[assets/covers/significance.jpg]] The hunger for significance (to count, to matter, to make a difference that no one else can make in quite the same way) is not a character flaw or a symptom of pride. It is a signal of what human beings are and what they are for. Willard’s distinction between significance and egotism is precise: egotism is a pathological distortion of the drive for significance, not the drive itself. ## Not egotism Egotism is self-absorption: the egotist is always the dominant figure in their own field of vision, seeing everything through the lens of their own position and advantage. The drive for significance is opposite in orientation. It is outwardly directed, toward the good to be done; it looks for contribution, not reflection. ‘We were built to count, as water is made to run downhill.’ The design is not optional.[^dc-p15] The public version of the distorted drive (the desperate scramble for uniqueness in an anonymous world) is illustrated by [[Andy Warhol]]’s observation that everyone will have their fifteen minutes of fame. In a modern media-saturated world, this promise offers ‘desperate souls an assurance of uniqueness that could protect them from being “nobody.”’ The need behind the scramble is real and legitimate. The medium is not.[^dc-p15] ## Placed, not competing ‘We are placed in a specific context to count in ways no one else does.’ The specificity is the point: not significance in general, competing against everyone else for the available supply of importance, but a particular contribution from a particular position that is uniquely ours. This is closer to vocation than to achievement: a placement that precedes any effort, grounded in the creatureliness that is itself a form of being known and valued.[^dc-p15] ‘Our hunger for significance is a signal of who we are and why we are here.’ The hunger is diagnostic, pointing toward a real fact about human identity. It is also, Willard adds, the basis of humanity’s enduring response to [[Jesus]]: he takes individual human beings as seriously as their shredded dignity demands, and he has the resources to carry through on his high estimate of them.[^dc-p21] ## Selected passages > ‘Our hunger for significance is a signal of who we are and why we are here, and it is also the basis of humanity’s enduring response to Jesus.’ > > *The Divine Conspiracy*, p. 15 > ‘We are placed in a specific context to count in ways no one else does. That is our destiny.’ > > *The Divine Conspiracy*, p. 15 ## Appearances - *The Divine Conspiracy*, [[Dallas Willard]] (1997), Ch. 1 ‘Entering the Eternal Kind of Life Now’, pp. 15, 21 ## Related [[Imago Dei]] · [[Kingdom of God]] · [[Discipleship]] · [[Andy Warhol]] · [[Dallas Willard]] [^dc-p15]: [[The Divine Conspiracy (1997)]], p. 15 · *‘The drive to significance that first appears as a vital need in the tiny child, and later as its clamorous desire for attention, is not egotism. Egotistical individuals see everything through themselves. They are always the dominant figures in their own field of vision.’* · [[The Divine Conspiracy - 34.jpg|↗]] [^dc-p21]: [[The Divine Conspiracy (1997)]], p. 21 · *‘Our hunger for significance is a signal of who we are and why we are here.’* · [[The Divine Conspiracy - 40.jpg|↗]]