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| Dreaming by Douglas Teed |
I talk to myself. I always have. In the past year or so, I've started to realize that this talking I do while I'm alone is not for my own benefit, but that I'm talking to God. Some people might get down on their knees or go to church to pray. I do it while I'm driving around town or sitting in traffic. I'm leading with this because I want to explain that not only do I talk to God, he also talks back to me.
Some people might think this is crazy and that's okay.
Lately, I've been talking to God about all the other sad, hard, unfair things that are going on in the world. Recently I wondered out loud to myself "just what is our problem?" (by us, I mean the collective us of humanity).
Then God said something to me that I can't stop thinking about.
You don't know your value.
"But God," I said, "I know you love me and that I matter to you."
Yes, but most folks in the world don't know that. And even if they've heard it, they don't really BELIEVE it.
Not only do most of us not believe we are valuable to God, we also don't value ourselves and we certainly don't value each other. How could we value each other and still treat each other the way we do?
So what can I do about this? I'm just one person (this is what I said to God).
And you know what he said to me?
Tell my people they matter. Tell them they have value. Not because of anything they did or will do. Not because of any untapped potential they might realize one day. Right now. Just as they are. They matter.
So that's what I'm going to do. I'm not sure how it will look. I'm not sure how it will go. But I want to start with you. You reading this blog on your iPhone. Yes, you.
You matter.
You matter to me.
You matter to God (even if you've never met Him).
You matter to your community.
You matter to your town or city, to your state, to our nation.
You matter to our world.
In your everyday life, you might not get the message that you matter but that's because maybe the folks you are dealing with don't know...because they don't know they matter either. But I'm hoping to change that.
You have value. HUGE unspeakable value. You can't wrap your head around it. And according to what I believe, that value was realized with what happened on that very first Easter so long ago.
But regardless of what else you believe about any spiritual stuff, I hope you believe you have value. And if you get a chance to tell someone else that he matters too, I hope you'll take that chance. We have no idea how different our world could look if we all just really knew how much we mattered. If we all treated each other (and ourselves) like we had value, things would be much better. I hope we can get a glimpse of it.
