I AM BECAUSE YOU ARE

In this life in this world we are all in it together. As the poet said, no one of us is an island alone unto oneself. We need one another. That is why we were born. That is why each of us was and is blessed by God with gifts that no one else has in the same way that we do.

We are called to use those gifts to the betterment and blessing of others and discover a better and blessed life for ourselves when we do.

Sometimes I think we forget that truth. Sometimes we do not recognize just how blessed we are, what gifts with which God has blessed us. Sometimes, even when we realize what these gifts and talents are, we make light of them, downplay them, and even denigrate them because we believe our gifts pale in comparison to the gifts and talents with which others are blessed.

And they do. Every gift I have, every talent that God has given me, can be and is topped by someone else. There are better preachers better pastors, better priests; better writers, better husbands, better parents -- the list is endless – than I am. I know that. The people I have served over the years know that. My wife and children know that. The saving grace is that I am not alone.

The truth is is that it does not matter. We are all gifted by our gifts, but no matter how superior they may be, they are limited. There is always someone who is better than we are and we are better than others. It is a waste of time and quite useless to compare gifts. What we are called to do and what God expects us to do and what we should demand of ourselves is to recognize the gifts with which we have been blessed and then use those gifts to the best of our ability even as that ability and those gifts are limited because of human nature – because we are not God!

Whenever we do that, what we do is make others better people. Whenever others use their gifts to the best of their ability, they make me a better person. That is why it is so true to say that I am because you are. I am who I am because you are who you are. We are who we are, we become who we are becoming because others are who they are in our lives. You make me me. I make you you. We help make each other. That is the way and that is why God both created us and blessed us as God did.

God did not create us islands unto ourselves nor intend for us to become as such. God created us to need one another in this world. What we are, rather, and what God intends for us to be, is a community: one community, one family, one world. We are a people created by God to love and care for one another, each of us using our gifts to help make one another grow into the person God wants and we ourselves want to be and can be. That is our task.

Thus, the truth is that without you I am less. With you I am more. Again, I am who I am because you are who you are, and vice versa. If we only realized just how important we are to one another, if we all understood this truth, we would make this world the community that God created it to become. We still can.