Everyone wants to be “special.” It has become an especially common theme in the lives of many young people.
Joseph Davis tells of the growing sense of anxiety, especially among college students.
Meghan, a 19-year-old scholarship student at a first-rate university, is frustrated and despairing of herself. She explains that she is attending her “safety school” and wants to “show that I should be somewhere better by acing all my classes and being president of 40 organizations.” But, she adds, “that is really not happening. I am, if anything, a mediocre student … and that just makes me so angry at the world and then me for not being the best person.” Although she wants “to impress someone,” she says, “I end up being impressively unimpressive,” and that “crushes me.”
In short, Meghan, like everyone is seeking to stand out as special.
Being special is not found in great achievement or outward status. Instead, it comes from unique relationships that recognize a person for who they are.
Paul would tell us that God gives high status to those who come to him in faith and obedience.
“So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” (Galatians 4:7)
When someone is adopted, they are chosen.
God takes the worst, the downtrodden, the outsider, and the average and elevates them. They become a son of God, heir of all things. No higher sense of “specialness” exists.
When you start feeling unappreciated, remember that in Christ, you are special. And he cares only that you are faithful. He gives the status.
-Robert G. Taylor-
