IMPORTANCE

"You is important."

When Viola Davis' character in THE HELP spoke those life-giving words, people identified.

Everyone wants to be important and many of our daily life choices flow out of that motivation.

So how do we get to be important? Are all the good causes taken up?

Should we recycle to save the planet? Plump our resume?  Are we important if we have our very own Wiki page?

Mike and I watched THE SOCIAL NETWORK again last night.  I was struck with how the movie portrayed Mark Zuckerberg's life through the lens of continuous striving to be important enough.

When I was growing up, one of our older family members had grown up in another generation where blacks were disparaged.  At the first mention of race, this person's go-to rhetoric was harsh and vitriolic.  But in 2008, this same relative voted for Barack Obama.  Really?  Did the person wake one day with an ephipany?  No, but our family member seemed very proud of having voted for a black candidate.  Who could have seen THAT swerve coming?  Well, casting the vote made our "kin" feel broad-minded.  And important.  Strangely, the vote was cast more for the relative than for the candidate.

Hey, we all want to feel important and we want our efforts in this world to count.  So how does God address mankind's need to feel worth?  Each person must find the answer, but from my perspective...

When I bowed before the Most High, I learned the Lord gave my life a purpose that had been established before the world.  The God Who Sees knew my heart would want to be consumed by the superficial, so He left a handbook that I might dig deeper...and He gave thirst and understanding that I might WANT to read and be able to comprehend.   The Book said the One who created the universe calls me His friend.  I read that the Eternal Father chose me for adoption into His family.  It says the Mighty God restrained His strong right arm when He sent His Son into death for me.  I found that God the Holy Spirit kindly dispenses tools for living life...like strength and discernment and the ability to forgive.  Just being aware of all this heady stuff makes me feel very important.  But there's more...

As a daughter of the King, I am royalty.  In the book of Revelation, He has shown me a bit of the future and my destination will be in the New Jerusalem with streets of gold and clear sparkly jewels.  There we will no longer follow the inclinations of our stubborn hearts; sans sin, we will follow His lead.  And the verse in 2 Timothy (2:12) totally knocks me out.  He explains that in the coming kingdom, I will reign with Him.  Reign?  I do not know how that could be...but it's a huge infusion of importance AND humility.

The Beginning and the End has carefully preserved His words over time for a very good reason.  The words explain His faithful pursuit of us.  If unread, we do not understand our worth and we look elsewhere for significance.

THE HELP was a movie that touched many people and made us think big thoughts.

Aibileen's words spoke powerfully into Mae Mobley's little spirit because she spoke Godly words.

We are important to Him.