The world needs you

The world needs you
© DAVID DELOSSY/PHOTODISC/THINKSTOCK
Do you know people who live “ordinary” lives? Just what is “ordinary”? The dictionary describes ordinary as “of common quality, rank, or ability,” as in average, everyday, normal, garden-variety, usual, standard. Nothing terribly offensive about that. But what about its other definition: “deficient in quality: poor, inferior,” as in unexceptional, unremarkable, run-of-the-mill, or uninteresting. Not so sure that’s a helpful way to think of ourselves, or anyone!

I’ve given a lot of thought and prayer to the concept of self-worth. And I keep coming back to this passage in Mary Baker Eddy’s Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896

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Beloved children, the world has need of you,—and more as children than as men and women: it needs your innocence, unselfishness, faithful affection, uncontaminated lives. You need also to watch, and pray that you preserve these virtues unstained, and lose them not through contact with the world. What grander ambition is there than to maintain in yourselves what Jesus loved, and to know that your example, more than words, makes morals for mankind! (p. 110)

When I think of Jesus’ teachings, I see that he often turned the world’s way of valuing things upside down. Christian writer Philip Yancey, in his beautifully written book What’s So Amazing about Grace, says Jesus knew that the world, in general, often works by what Yancey calls “the mathematics of ungrace”; rewarding the highest achievers, the competitors, the ones deemed most deserving. But Jesus’ theology springs from an entirely different premise, where all are loved equally and valued unconditionally by their heavenly Father. So life is less about our own personal performance, and more about living Christly qualities and accepting the good that is ours through God’s grace. 

In reading Jesus’ parable of the younger son who returns home after years of wasting his father’s inheritance, I’m often drawn to learning more about the elder brother. He is bitter about the party thrown for his younger wayward brother. No celebration had ever honored this older son, even though he’d served his father faithfully. When the father responds by saying, “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine” (Luke 15:31), it tells me that there was nothing wrong with the apparent ordinariness of the elder son’s life. But perhaps it was this son’s own failure to recognize the worth of his decision to faithfully serve his father that made him feel inadequate and unloved.

Here’s another way to think about it. Have you ever put together a puzzle with 500 or 1,000 pieces? Some sections are visual focal points. The pieces that fit in those sections are easily identifiable. They’re usually the first ones to find their honored place in the overall design. And then there are the more “ordinary” spaces to be filled. We sort through piece after missing piece of grass or shrubbery or blue sky. They can seem so indistinguishable from all the rest of their kind or color. And yet each has a specific niche to fill. I suppose if I were a puzzle piece who wanted to be noticed, I might wish to be the brightest petal in the biggest flower, or the sunlit tip of the cathedral spire, or the glint in the tiger’s eye. That way, my significance would be obvious and my placement in the overall plan would come early in the process. But if you could turn the completed puzzle over, every piece in its appointed place would have the exact same color and value. One no more special nor noticeable than another, but all needed to complete the whole. 

Life is really all about "being" … being the reflection of qualities that help and heal.

Or what about a necklace, made up of links of varied sizes, which come together in the front to host an array of beautiful beads, or even gemstones. Have you ever felt like the tiniest link in the back, which never gets noticed and is buried under someone’s collar? Maybe you’ve even been tempted to think: “Those flashy gemstones out there in front, garnering everyone’s attention! What makes them so special?” And yet, if even the tiniest of links were to break, or lose its connection with the others, the whole necklace might fall to the ground.

Everyone has a place of importance. Everyone brings value to everyday life. A penny has worth equal to every other penny. If judged by appearance alone, the shiniest pennies might seem the most appealing, the most prestigious, the most important. Ones that show a little wear and tear, that might have been lost in the corner for a while, dropped on the street, or buried unnoticed in the couch cushions, could seem “deficient in quality.” But when found and applied to a needed purchase, when put to their intended use, they all have equal value. 

I have a few acquaintances who might be considered highly important people by the world’s standards. They’re front and center in their organization or business or activity. Shiny pennies, indeed! But I also have many acquaintances who lead pretty ordinary lives; bus drivers, teachers, moms and dads, retirees, grocery clerks. They are shining examples of God-given humility and love. Aren’t they just as valuable as the shiny pennies, the spire of the cathedral in the puzzle, or the gemstone that dazzles at the most visible part of the chain?

If you’ve ever wondered just how “the world has need of you” when you don’t have an impressive job or important connections or haven’t created world-shattering inventions, consider this: Maybe that grocery clerk needs your smile today (or maybe you need hers). Maybe that retiree needs your encouragement by way of a phone call. And maybe there’s even a shiny penny of a person out there who needs your behind-the-scenes, but faithful, support. 

There are no small links in the “chain of scientific being” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 271). Mary Baker Eddy reminds us that “the rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother’s need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another’s good.” She goes on to say: “Love giveth to the least spiritual idea might, immortality, and goodness, which shine through all as the blossom shines through the bud. All the varied expressions of God reflect health, holiness, immortality—infinite Life, Truth, and Love” (Science and Health, p. 518).

And that brings us back to Jesus and his economy of grace. Most of Jesus’ parables present a radically different view of value and worth. Think of the woman who swept her whole house looking for one missing coin. Or the shepherd who left his flock of 99 to find the one missing sheep. Or the apparent inequity of paying laborers who were hired last the same wage as those who had toiled all day. Perhaps Jesus was telling us that God doesn’t think in terms of categories of worthiness, winners and losers, the favored and the forgotten. Maybe life is really all about “being” … being the reflection of qualities that help and heal, accepting the good that is already present, not keeping score (except to square our own accounts with God), and trusting God’s timing in the gradual appearing of good. 

Let’s maintain in ourselves “what Jesus loved,” and we will find ourselves loved, cherished, and highly valued.

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