As much as we need the second crucial C – capability – we find that it means nothing without a purpose. This is where our third crucial C – contribution – comes in. We need to know that what we do counts and makes a difference in the grand equation of what happens in the world.
This quest for significance begins in childhood. Parents who take the time to notice their children’s special capabilities – a natural talent in the arts, a quickness for figures, an innate empathy for others – help them begin to recognize the value of these gifts. Elementary teachers reinforce the notion that each child has something important to give when they assign classroom jobs. The child learns early on that if he/she doesn’t feed the class turtle the pet will die. It feels good to do something important!
My mentor in teaching parenting, Carol Tatta, always used the example of children growing up on a farm to illustrate the need for contribution. On a farm, everyone has chores that are vital to the lives and thriving of the crops and animals. Whether they like the work or not, these children have the satisfaction of knowing what they do is needed.
In our suburban and urban cultures it may be more challenging to demonstrate that what our children and particularly our adolescents do really makes a difference to the world around them. When our adolescents don’t see that they are necessary to the smooth operation of daily life, they have little incentive to shoulder responsibility for their actions.
When Paul tells Timothy that God wants each person on earth saved – in a relationship with God (1 Timothy 1:4), he is summing up the message spoken to us throughout the Bible. Each of us counts – each of us is precious to the Lord.
This is not a mushy, unspecified, touchy-feely kind of love on God’s part. The stories of the various biblical figures demonstrate how individualized the Lord’s interactions are with each separate person. How Abraham comes to know and trust the Lord is different from Jacob’s experience, and Moses’, and Paul’s. What they have in common, however, is that God calls each of them to particular jobs – particular ways in which they can put to use their God-given talents to do something that matters in the world.
What a difference it makes in our lives when we believe this! How wonderful to know that God has created each of us with particular contributions in mind that the Lord is waiting for us to embrace.
But what happens when humans fail to get this message? Next week we’ll take a look at the disastrous fallout when people suspect that they don’t count and are powerless to make a positive difference in the world.
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