Valuing Uniqueness

This entry formulated in my head as I attended my daughter’s high school graduation. In the speeches by the principal, students, and others, several times they alluded to this high school being “the best high school in the nation.” In addition, there was high emphasis on individual success, on this class being the best yet,” “making their mark,” being leaders, etc. In talking about their children, parents usually focus on their achievements (grades, club leadership, athletic achievements). Children are steeped in this sort of emphasis from the day they are born.

As I reflected on this, it hit me how much uniqueness is a high value in our culture. Uniqueness is a prerequisite for meaning – and not just uniqueness, but uniqueness in comparison with anyone else. This brand of uniqueness is expressed in the language of superlatives. I have to be that leader, my organization or group is the best, I have to make the most impact. The unstated corollary is that my uniqueness is defined with respect to how I measure up to other people. One who cannot lay claim to this understanding of uniqueness is considered a loser. Perhaps having lived in another culture has made me more acutely aware of this trait in my own culture. I’m not ready to judge this as a fully evil trait - it could well be that it is the driver of some of our culture's economic and political strength. But how does it impact our understanding of the basis of our value as humans?

I often hear the same type of talk in the churches and in missions. I can’t help but wonder how it might blind us to the real implications of servanthood and of dying to self that are the Kingdom values Jesus hammers on in the Scriptures. Our value comes in our relationship to God; our meaning is found in Him – not in attending the greatest school in the country, or living in the strongest nation in the world, attending the church with the best worship anywhere, or sending the most missionaries. It’s hard to hear the Biblical command to “die to self” when self is constantly being propped up with the myth of uniqueness.

So I am very proud of my daughter in her graduation, but I’m thinking perhaps my focus should be more on the character that she has developed than on grades and achievements or on whether or not her school was indeed, the best high school in the nation.

Schedule Disruptions – God’s Planning

I am on the plane, returning from a packed trip that included a visit with my daughter Rebekah in Scotland, then a field visit to our team in Kazakhstan, where my family had served from 1996-2006. When scheduling this trip, I found the best fare I could get was by buying separate round trip tickets – Atlanta-Istanbul, Istanbul-Astana (Kaz). So to see Rebekah, I delayed the departure to Kazakhstan and bought yet a third round trip fare Istanbul to Edinburgh. I saved money, but my trip to Edinburgh ended up being a 31-hour trip, complete with four plane changes! I don’t recommend you hire me to do your travel planning.

After buying the tickets so they all lined up, Turkish Air changed the schedule which resulted in us having to spend an unplanned full day in Istanbul. I was frustrated as that shortened our trip to Kazakhstan and it meant the expense of an overnight. As I was planning, I remembered that one of the young women from the student ministry in Kazakhstan was now in Istanbul for Hodgkins Lymphoma treatment. Lyuba is a sweet, bubbly young woman who I had gotten to know the 2-3 years prior to our leaving Kazakhstan in 2006. So I wrote her to see if she’d like to get together.

I ended up being able to see her mother in Kazakhstan so she could give me some stuff to bring. She is understandably concerned about her daughter and it was good to be able to console her and to be her courier. It was fun to see what a Russian in Istanbul misses – the care package included pickled fish, a packet of Russian mayonnaise, dark bread, porridge mix, and some of that fake crab meat. Lyuba was very excited to get it!

Yesterday I spent nearly 3 hours with Lyuba. She was glad to have a chance to speak Russian, as she has been living with an American missionary family in Turkey for 5 months. We had a delightful visit which I think was a blessing and encouragement to her. And she was ecstatic about the care package from her mother!

As we went our separate ways, I thought about how if Turkish Air had not changed the schedule, it would not have been possible to have this time together. Did God orchestrate this? I don’t know. But I do know that He wants us keep our eyes open for ministry opportunities, especially in the midst of interruptions, and that He will use us even when things happen that we really had not intended or even wanted.