The Importance of Every Person…

“The deepest urge in human nature,” said John Dewey, “is the desire to be important,”¹ to be needed, to be appreciated as a person, to have a place, to perform a part. And surely in the purposes of God, and in the compassionate hearts of people, every person is important, sincerely so. Never take this from anyone. There comes to mind a small child, who, feeling himself belittled and unwanted, cried out: “I’m not anything at all.” There is no way of placing a price on a single human life. There is no way of calculating what contribution anyone may make. There is no simple measuring for men. As the Psalmist said it⎯or asked without answer⎯”What is man that thou art mindful of him?”² With an eternal past and limitless possibilities, made in the image of the Father of us all, everyone has an infinite future before him in an everlastingness of life. The handicapped, the impaired, have their purpose, their place, their possibilities. Nor does the brightest pupil always become the best performing person, nor the prettiest child the happiest later in life. Let there be no favorites in families, no premature judgment or rejection by friends, no assumption anyplace that one person is important and another is not. Let there be no easy giving up by teachers, no assumption that one student is worth working with while another is not. Life isn’t a process simply of sorting out and rejecting some and accepting others, but rather recognizing the divine character within each and all. “To be what we are,” said Robert Louis Stevenson, “and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.”³ To fathers, mothers, to teachers, to friends, to families, to everyone in the world: let children, young people, all others, everyone, everywhere be made somehow to know that there is a future for them. “The deepest urge in human nature is the desire to be important”⎯each to be able to perform his part. Don’t take this from anyone⎯ever.