Ever felt this way?
Unneeded How does it feel? To not be needed nor desired...
"Acquainted with grief" Isaiah so poetically prophetic in his foresight depiction of Jesus, "Yeshua HaMashiach" (Is 53:3). "Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light," writes a woman who perhaps many times felt unneeded. Stemming from all walks of life, people of every culture, creed, and background have experienced it - anyone and every one who has lived, I believe, has encountered it. Not only it, but its kin. The parallels between the lives of Jesus and Helen Keller are worth noting. Most may agree that the two were born into the world for purpose and to make a difference. Most may consider the thought that both were born within a society who could not and did not understand them nor accept them. The one major difference between the two might be that Helen Keller was born blind, deaf, and dumb, in contrast to Jesus who was born into a culture of people who lived blind and deaf to the Truth. Many other interesting comparisons can be drawn between the lives of Jesus and Helen Keller, but I only felt to mention enough to spark the inquiring minds. Now I ask, if you are not already, to think outside of yourself for a moment... I know for a long time, perhaps the majority of your life, you have thought about you. Sure you have! Even your opinion of yourself in the perspective of other people still is your own self-evaluation and self-impression of who you are to yourself. I'm sure this shocks the walls of your inner thinking, but that's good. Like Freud believed, self-analysis is truly most difficult to achieve, particularly because you have to examine yourself, and to do that I believe the first step is stepping out and away from yourself. It's one thing to look in a mirror and behold yourself, but it's a whole new experience given the opportunity to step out of your body altogether. Imagine now, stepping out of your body and examining what you look like. Semi-startling perhaps at first, but then how much more efficient could you actually examine and then begin fixing things on your duplicate self. Just think! If you wanted to see if you had a boogie or misplaced standing hair, you could see it and immediately take action in fixing it just the way you like. I imagine it would be much like prepping a baby for the day, except the baby would not be moving - your duplicate self would stand there perfectly still, unmoving. Even a step further, you could clearly see "love handles" and other fat-problem areas that you may not have seen properly before, but now can identify where the problems are and jump back in your body motivated enough to passionately exercise until you see great results. Imagine that! Now back to you... not the duplicate you experience, but the real you. In our current times so overrun by technology which enables and enhances the speed of communication, it is much easier to make contact with anyone anywhere. What do you do when no one is making contact? No one calls. No one texts. No one emails. No Facebook postings to, with, or about you. No social media tags or posts mention your name. What do you do when it seems no one cares? Do you feel unneeded? Do you begin to retreat to a world within yourself that speaks to you in an unknown language that you accept - a language called "No Purpose"? Is there a still a future out there with your name on it, or is this the end? This moment, cold excitement thrilling your Soul's windows, creating what seems an eternal reverse time space that shuts you off from society, family, and home. It has been said that "home is where the heart is." I think about the Steven Spielberg film, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, and the ending when E.T. said, "E.T. phone home." Just a few words, but here hold true significance. A set of intergalactic time and travel circumstances sent E.T. to Earth. He was not understood nor accepted by most earthlings which inadvertently caused his life to fade as a self-rejection from within his inner self. A society that perhaps was not ready for an alien being - something different or foreign. It is important to note here some of the synonyms for the word "unneeded": prodigal, undesired, worthless. Could it be that the unneeded feelings of a total foreign outsider caused him to downward spiral toward death? Another relevant quote: "misery loves company." Given the general connotation of this phrase, I felt it necessary to bring to light the fact that not all people who are miserable want to be. Not all miserable people are malicious perpetrators. There are actually some people in the world who have been placed in a realm of misery that they struggle leaving. There are those who have been misrepresented in terms of their character, perhaps they did not have the unique tools some others have to speak up for themselves. Perhaps these miserable ones were mislabeled by society's rules, regulations and seemingly overly-orthodox standards. Can I say "overly-orthodox"? Too late. It is my belief that the feelings attached to being unneeded is surely in the mind. For one, how do we know that NO one needs us? Even in our vast technological age, there are still those who actually do NEED us, but our current circle of friends, associations, or circumstances just haven't led us in their directions yet. At some point, those who find themselves in a "state of mind" that yields unneeded, they should remind themselves that they are, in fact, needed. Even at a most seemingly elementary level, yet core potency speaks aloud, you need you. Separation, anxiety, mood swings, depression, loneliness, doubt, boredom, and self-hatred are all cousins to the feeling of unneeded. Stay in any of these familial circles too long and one finds himself like E.T., out of touch, longing for home; like Helen Keller, walking a lonely dark road in the light, alone and seemingly abandoned; like Jesus, "acquainted with grief", alone in a garden, separated from all those who claimed friendship and love. So my friends, choose to be needed. Choose to need yourself. When no one else is there. When no one else is looking. When no one else is speaking. You don't have wait for anyone else to approve you. If God didn't think you were worth approving, He would not have sent you. Since the Creator of the Universe believes in you, shouldn't that be enough? Shouldn't be enough to see that you have something to give the world? A gift. An idea. A book. A song. Your life speaks volumes louder than any social media or telecast could ever produce. Be an E.T. Be a Helen Keller. Be a Jesus. Be You.
