I Matter!

I have a group that meets on Wednesday nights to talk about God and spiritual things while taking advantage of the Hayloft's cheap taco night. The group is therefore called "Taco Theology," and they regularly expand my thinking outside of my narrow confines. The group has three rules: "All perspectives welcome," "Keep it civil" and "Tip well." I find that, as our friendships deepen, the second rule has faded into "duh" territory, and the first rule is foundational for our existence. I don't really police the third rule.

Our conversation this week was "Why do people pray?" Our conversation quickly moved into technology and social media as communication. At first glance, it seems like we were off-task, but the thoughts that kept moving into my brain were connecting prayer with Facebook and Twitter. Finally, the last piece clicked and the group inspired me to a new and deeper place.

I matter.

What Facebook offers me is the chance to matter. I have a quantity of friends that can be measured. I have a quantity of "likes" and comments to the things I post. I can see what happens on other people's postings as well to measure myself against them (we all do it...). Twitter is even more aligned to calculate my "mattering." I collect followers and watch my statements turn to trends. Hotels in Las Vegas even have a 24-hr live feed of people's "tweets" about their hotels. My opinion matters. I matter.

In the midst of all this, I couldn't keep it in anymore, and I blurted a short sermon (sorry guys and gals) that ended with "I matter!" Prayer is the declaration that I matter. I matter to God. What I want matters to God. This reality is not prideful, it's humbling. Consider the words of Psalm 8:

"When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?

You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor."

In other words... Wow. I matter. You matter. In God's eyes, although God sees the majestic universe, you matter. God is mindful of you. It can be a challenge to consider this "mattering" in the face of an increasingly quantified mattering found in the opinion sections of newspapers, polls and Facebook. But when I consider how I matter before the throne of God, I wonder if I put too much of my identity in how many clicks I get. Maybe my identity is best found in Psalm 8, standing before God and saying "I matter."