As often happens in my brain, a couple of things collided, forming a new thought. Well, new to me. I guess that what counts.
The first was a blog post from a college friend entitled Ocean of Prayer. I spend a lot of time in my own head. It never occurred to me that people might need structure to do that. The uniqueness even among people with so much in common astounds me. It comes as no surprise then that we all follow the same Christ in so many different ways. Of course there are different denominations. There are different people. All with different skills, needs, and preferences.
The second came from a book series I re-visited - the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov. I just finished the fourth book which brought in a planet called Gaia. As I understand it, the term gaia refers to a universal consciousness. And in the book, this planet is "one" with its inhabitants, plants, rocks, etc.. The idea of individual becomes lost.
It has opened my eyes to the importance of the individual in the Bible. Of course you have the famous parable about the 1 lost sheep. Shepherd takes his flock back to the pen for the night. He counts them going in. He left with 100, only 99 made it back. Shepherd goes chasing after the 1 lost sheep.
The shepherd doesn't abandon 99. He makes sure that those 99 are safe and sound first. Then he goes after the 1. It's not that 1 was more important. It's that all 100 were important - as individuals. It could have been any one of those sheep. And at different times, it probably was. It may be a convenient short cut to refer to them as flock. But that shepherd knew them as individuals. He cared for them as individuals.
Going back to the balance among motivations - wisdom, power, wealth, and esteem of others. We have a spiritual need to reshape things in our image. Our homes reflect our personality. Do you paint? Each work reflects something about you. These ramblings that I spew onto the Internet, they reflect something about me. The more I reflect God's image, the more these things take His shape also. And yet, it's never just Him. There is something unique in how I reflect God.
That's individuality. I propose that was God's intention all along. That we, as unique individuals, grow more like Him, but not the same as Him. We hold much in common, but in different ways. The Bible, the gospel grows individuals.
Why is that so important?
