What Really Matters?

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides for ever.

1 John 2:15-17

What matters in this world? What is important about the lives we lead?

That is perhaps a question that is as personal as it is deceptively simple. What matters to me may not matter to anyone else. What I deem as trivial is perhaps greatly prized by someone else.

Who can say what is important and what is trivial? Is it merely a question of personal perspective?

My writings are extremely important—to me. The research, the analysis, the thought that each article and essay require are, for me, true labors of love. Not only do I enjoy doing these things, but they are the quintessential expression of “me”.

In my mind, I am contending with important questions, and relevant issues. In my mind, my writings are, above all else, “serious.” I certainly am serious about them!

Do my writings matter to anyone else? To some degree I am sure they matter to my subscribers and followers. To the degree that people respect what I have to say and value my comments on various topics, my writings have at least some importance to other people.

Do my writings matter to everyone? No, they do not. My writings clearly do not matter to those who mock and deride my work. Those who think I am wrong for saying the things I say and writing the things I write certainly are not going to put any great store in my work. Those who are unaware of my work by definition place no value in it at all.

Do my writings, then, really matter? Are they really all that important? Are they instead simply “vanity of vanities”, as the first verses of Ecclesiastes argue is the true nature of all that we do in this world?

Perhaps the better question is to ponder what it means to say that something “matters”. What is the significance of saying this or that is important? By what measure do we determine that something is or is not “valuable”?

Do my writings hold some idea that others might find valuable? I certainly hope that is the case. I absolutely hope that people will read this and find some value within these words.

What if someone does not? If someone tells me these words are unimportant and meaningless, how should I respond?

Obviously, if my words are met with disdain that is personally hurtful. I do not want my words to be met with disdain; I want my words to be met with praise and great esteem.

But what do I do when I do not get what I want? Do I stop writing? Do I go do something else instead? Do I seek out that which people will praise, and which people will esteem?

Are my writings valuable because they are popular? My following is, in Internet terms, not at all what one would call “large”, so it would be quite a stretch to say my writings are at all “popular”. My subscribers and my followers no doubt place at least some value on them, but the rest of humanity almost certainly does not—and most people do not even know my writings exist.

The same can be said for whatever anyone else might do in this world. With very few exceptions, the great mass of humanity is not at all aware of our individual lives, or our individual efforts. To the great mass of humanity, most individuals might as well not even exist, for all the awareness people have of them.

How can anything matter when most people do not even know it exists?

For anything to matter even when most people are unaware of its existence, something other than that awareness must be the relevant metric. For everything done by a person, if it is to matter it must be because of some quality that does not depend on the awareness of other people.

For myself, that quality is what I mean when I speak of being “called”. Regardless of whether people read or do not read what I write, regardless of whether they agree or disagree with the things which I say, I write because I feel called to do so.

Time and again, writing is part of the path that opens up before me. Others will do as they do, but writing is what I do.

At a deep personal level, writing is what I must do; writing is what I am called to do.

Writing is something God calls me to do. This I do believe to be true.

No matter how many or how few people are aware of my writings, there can be no doubt that God is aware of them. God is aware of everything each of us does, as He is the Creator of the universe and all that exists within it.

God is aware of what each of us does, and God is aware if we are doing as He calls us to do. God is aware if we are not doing as He calls us to do.

Does what we do matter because God is aware of it?

If awareness is the gauge of whether or not something matters, then God’s awareness must by definition make everything we do matter. Even if no other person on earth is aware of what we do, God’s awareness must mean what we do matters. For God’s awareness not to make what we do important, God would have to have no interest in what we do—and as God has given us His Law to guide us in how we live our lives and how we act towards our fellow human beings, there can be no doubt that God has a definite interest in what we do.

As God has an interest in what we do, as what we do matters to God, it necessarily follows that it matters if we are doing what is right or if we are doing what is wrong. It necessarily follows that it matters if we are answering or ignoring God’s calling for us.

If it matters whether we are answering or ignoring God’s calling for us, does it also matter what other people think about what we do? Which should matter more—that God is aware of what we do or that other human beings are aware?

As so very few people will ever be aware of what we do, it seems patently obvious that God’s awareness must matter more. Doing what God wants us to do must matter more than doing what people want us to do, simply because most people will never even know we exist.

This, then is what we may conclude truly matters: that we are answering God’s call as best we can. What truly matters is that we are doing what is right. What truly matters is that we are walking the path God intends for us, whatever that path might be.

Am I walking the path God intends for me? I certainly pray that I am. I pray that I am, and I pray that if I am not then God will guide me onto whatever path He does intend for me. I pray that I am doing what I can to answer God’s calling for me. I pray that I am doing what is right and not doing what is wrong.

Are you walking the path God intends for you? I pray that you are. I pray that if you are not then God will guide you onto whatever path He does intend for you. I pray you are doing what you can to answer God’s calling for you, whatever that calling should be. I pray you are doing what is right and not doing what is wrong.

Most people will never be aware of what we do, and therefore what most people think about what we do can never matter. Because most people will forever be unaware even of our existence, popularity itself can never matter, and it can never be the gauge by which we know if what we do matters.

God, however, is always aware of all that we do. All that we do therefore absolutely matters. It matters to God. It matters to God if we are doing what is right and not what is wrong. It matters to God that we are answering His calling for each of us.

As what we do matters to God, it follows that what we do should matter to us.