Think about it. There are nine planets (including Pluto if you still consider it a planet). Out of nine, there is only one planet that can support life at the level of complexity as we know it. There are 7 billion people on this planet, who coexist with billions of other organisms belonging to thousands of other species. Seven continents on this planet. This planet is large enough and complex enough to support life yet still small enough that you could fit 1.3 million earths inside the Sun. How is it that we exist? Think about it.
Before I make my point, I must make a disclaimer that I in no way intend to push my views on anyone else. If you believe in something different from me, I respect that. It's your opinion.
It's very fascinating how human beings can exist. That we can exist with a functional body and mind and able to rationalize and understand calculus and the laws of nature and God and empathy and how to play a minor scale on the piano. It's just so impossible.
Thinking in perspective, however, we are insignificant. Truly just conglomerations of particles living on a minuscule speck in an infinite galaxy. The equivalent to a golf ball on a football field.
If this is true, then what's the point?
How we see ourselves and how the universe sees us are so often inconsistent. We think we're born to be heroes, that we'll make a difference in the world, that we'll have an impact on others around us. And that's not wrong. We will. But in the grand scheme of things, we all eventually perish. Time moves fast and we'll get left behind. Again, what's the point?
There is another inconsistency with how we see ourselves and how the rest of the world sees us. We are too often biased about ourselves. We have such a black and white view of things, that whenever something good happens to us, it's all because of our good qualities. However, when something bad happens, someone else, such as fate or other people are to blame. We victimize ourselves.
The rest of the world sees us objectively, whether for good or bad. The things you may hate about yourself someone else likes, or the things you may adore about yourself someone else despises. There's never a perfect match between society and the individual. And because of this, we can never be satisfied.
Because everyone only has their perception to go off of. No one can be truly all good or all bad, just like no one person's opinions can be absolute truth.
And the thing is, human perceptions and opinions are so often flawed.
Human perception is flawed. Human judgement and emotion and character and reason and intelligence and altruism are all flawed.
But God doesn't care about flaws.
God looks at us, tiny and insignificant in the universe that He can fit in His hand and tells us we are more than conquerors. He looks at us, us humans who can never have the right intentions or the right habits or the right judgements and says we are so loved by Him. He looks at us, so incredibly small, and says "you are my people."
God chooses you.
Reflecting on this past Easter season, I've thought about what God's promise means personally to me, and I've come to the realization that it means that because of Him, I have a purpose. Because of Him, I can plunge straight into any obstacle I can handle. Because of Him, I can push myself to work hard for what I want. Because of Him, I can run far far away from Him and hide in the deepest caverns and darkest places, and somehow still come full circle, back to Him.
Just this past week, I had the opportunity to celebrate my baptism through my campus ministry. I was baptized as an infant, but I can't remember it. I also could not make the conscious effort to do so, and I wanted the chance to be able to reaffirm that I am on God's path.
I've grown apart from my faith in high school, due to stress as well as friendship struggles and growing anxiety. I had difficulty finding a stable community to support me in my faith.
As I've matured in the past years, I've come to understand that I don't need a community or freedom from stress or anxiety or depression. All I need is God.
Because He looks at me and everything I've been through and done and experienced and all of my flaws and baggage and everything; and despite the fact that I am one out of 7 billion people on this planet, with little influence or significance, He chooses me.
And that's pretty extraordinary.
