To be relevant?

A reason why I might have joined cult or a gang, I suspect, is if someone or some group had taken an interest in me in a way that nobody has before. It's like somehow being famous or relevant. To be relevant is an addictive and intoxicating feeling in any capacity. I imagine parents get a similar satisfaction from the fact that their children desperately need them to live. You can see it in co-dependent relationships where people are made to feel relevant because their partner desires them. Getting a job because you are relevant for the position.. etc, you get the point.

There's an element of validation-worship going in in this transaction. Does the celebrity worship the fans or do the fans worship the celebrity? I think the answer is that they are co-dependent. Same with parents and kids: kids need parents to live and parents need kids for relevance.

As a Christian I effectively rely on God for my own relevance. This a curious source of relevance because unlike fans or children or a lover etc the source of relevance is known only by faith.

I have faith in the character of God. I didn't invent God nor did I invent forgiveness so I am not the architect of my own relevance. I don't simply believe in myself. I believe: in the one who believes in me; in He who somehow wrote messages and had it passed along for thousands of years to reach me.

It's like the scene in movie Back to the Future when the Doctor leaves a message to be delivered to Marty 150 years in the future; except this message has been travelling 2000 years and to me!

Furthermore God requires me to love my neighbour. There is no part of His message in which I am to kill anybody - ever - under any circumstances. Jesus said love, i.e., empathise with and forgive your enemy. Jesus' message is not convenient for me and it serves my enemy. He led by example and prayed for the wellbeing of His killers, while they were killing Him.

This isn't about appealing to my desire to be relevant, that's just a byproduct of His glory.

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