Depends on what one calls "relevant". One can devote oneself for example to caring for the homeless or the disabled or the dying without injecting his ego into it.
We're going to change the climate. We're going to do away with economic cycles with our brilliance. We're going to determine who lives or dies via mandated gov't health care. These are all vain attempts by the Godless left to rule and reign over anything and everything they have no ultimate control over, while at the same time accusing Christians of being egoists. Maybe i'll add to the confusion of the left by explaining that Christianity, by it's very design, subjugates the ego, rather than enhances it. Going further would just be casting pearls, so i'll end here.
Yes and no. I have engaged in those type activities and while one expects no monetary return it's really difficult to do it long term without the expectation of some type of acknowledge, even a simple thank you. The desire for that thank you is ego. It's not necessarily a bad thing if kept in check and the consideration for your efforts is not demanded. The type of efforts you describe can be very ego deflating, which is one reason I participate. while some great things can be achieved and remarkable changes seen, there is always the ever present powerlessness I feel when things go in a direction that you simply cannot stop. Life, the universe as it is, is nothing if not relentless in the destruction and rebuilding of all things living. Yes, that's evolution in in truest form. All things are possible given enough time. Our very existence is proof of that.
I suspect Einstein was/is correct. Time is an illusion. the universe appears spread out and billions of years old... but that is all relative to a mind in space time with limited understanding and traveling at a certain speed relative to a point... say the big bang. the following is from the site. note... I am not endorsing the rest of the material on the site as I am not a big believer in top down cosmology... although it is a cool way to get around the fine tuning problem. http://everythingforever.com/einstein.htm Albert Einstein and the Fabric of Time Surprising as it may be to most non-scientists and even to some scientists, Albert Einstein concluded in his later years that the past, present, and future all exist simultaneously. In 1952, in his book Relativity, in discussing Minkowski's Space World interpretation of his theory of relativity, Einstein writes: Since there exists in this four dimensional structure [space-time] no longer any sections which represent "now" objectively, the concepts of happening and becoming are indeed not completely suspended, but yet complicated. It appears therefore more natural to think of physical reality as a four dimensional existence, instead of, as hitherto, the evolution of a three dimensional existence. Einstein's belief in an undivided solid reality was clear to him, so much so that he completely rejected the separation we experience as the moment of now. He believed there is no true division between past and future, there is rather a single existence. His most descriptive testimony to this faith came when his lifelong friend Besso died. Einstein wrote a letter to Besso's family, saying that although Besso had preceded him in death it was of no consequence, "...for us physicists believe the separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one." Most everyone knows that Einstein proved that time is relative, not absolute as Newton claimed. With the proper technology, such as a very fast spaceship, one person is able to experience several days while another person simultaneously experiences only a few hours or minutes. The same two people can meet up again, one having experienced days or even years while the other has only experienced minutes. The person in the spaceship only needs to travel near to the speed of light. The faster they travel, the slower their time will pass relative to someone planted firmly on the Earth. If they were able to travel at the speed of light, their time would cease completely and they would only exist trapped in timelessness. Einstein could hardly believe there were physicists who didn’t believe in timelessness, and yet the wisdom of Einstein's convictions had very little impact on cosmology or science in general. The majority of physicists have been slow to give up the ordinary assumptions we make about time.
Really, time is important tool for the money loans and exchange in modern countries. Time is create wealth from interest rates of finance. Time x interest rate.