Worth It

On my list of useless societal concepts, feel free to add the idea that we "need to feel needed". It's just plain silly to think that the only way we can feel valuable or feel confident in our worth is if we are "needed". No wonder we've become such an achievement-based society! What happened to my value as a human being? Why aren't I worth something simply for existing, and why cannot I be content with that? Wouldn't it be better to be enjoyed rather than "needed"?

In our broken state we came to believe that we were the center of the universe, the pinnacle of the created world, the bee's knees. In our search for security we convinced ourselves that the whole thing pivots and turns on us. Fortunately, Scripture often reminds us that this is not the case:

Everyone who is called by my name,

And whom I have created for My glory,

Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.

                                           - Isaiah 43:7

See, God is the one speaking here, and He wastes no time beating around the bush when explaining why He made human beings. For HIS glory! God didn't desperately need us for something, He wasn't even in deep desire of our presence or lonely without us. As a triune God in perfect community, God had everything He needed in Himself - He could have gone on without us. All of this ought to be breaking that "man as center of the universe" paradigm right out of our heads!

However, at the same time, realize what God IS saying about us. God deserves all the glory and praise to be given to Him, and we exist as His creation, as a testament to how amazing, brilliant, creative, and divine He really is. We exist because He decided it was worth it to form us, to breathe life into us, to save us from our own sin, and so on. God made us because He wanted to.

Reflect today on the fact that you're not needed. God will accomplish His plan with - or without - you. I am humbled by this but I also breathe a sigh of relief, because if God made me because He needed me to achieve something and I mess up as often as I do, then He ought to cast me out and start over anew, as we do with a broken vacuum cleaner. But, if my worth comes from being an Image-Bearer for the most High King, if it comes from who He made me to be rather than what I do, then my place in the cosmos is remarkably more stable than I could have hoped for! I may not be needed, but I am wanted, and that - to me - is worth it.