As we come to a new year on Sunday – 1 January 2017 - a watermark question is a perennial one, and highlighted by the serious statistics associated with self harm and worse - is a simple question - Who needs me?
It is in line with similar questions - Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going? Who determines right and wrong? What is reality / truth (real as opposed to artificial).
These questions are asked in whatever culture and economic circumstance. They cut to the heart of the matter regardless of birth or religion and dictates the search to find satisfying answers.
As a Christian evangelist introducing a Christian world view to many, these traditional questions have been a mainstay so as to engender a fresh way of thinking toward that of a salvation in Christ and away from a salvation associated with humanism and hedonism and any other 'isms'.
Who am I? A philosophical question as to true identity.
Where do I come from? Each of us ponder, yes parentage and ancestry but it goes far deeper when applied philosophically.
Where am I going? An essential issue with every close encounter to death – family, friends, accident ....
Who determines right from wrong? This is Christian theology 101 and regardless of culture or societies there is a common denominator - justice.
What is reality / truth (real as opposed to artificial)? The world of advertising will try and sell 'a pup'. Discernment is a continuing reality. The Christian looks to Christ as the very centre of the universe!
Then comes - who needs me?
This question looks beyond philosophy. It is a legitimate question of life. If this question draws a blank ......
Tiny tots and children learn very quickly - their parents need them desperately. It provides an inner assurance of their existence and validity. It provides an under pinning for their lives as they grow up in loving situations – the wider family and friends.
But what of those without such a bountiful upbringing or those who have been shunted from one set of foster parents to another and then another - the question: Who needs me - becomes a central issue.
It gets worse. There are any number of scenarios and circumstances in adolescence, latter teenage years to young adulthood to life without a partner, to widow/hood where this question becomes paramount. Who needs me?
Likewise the unemployed, middle management being retrenched, executives being cut, sports stars dumped, actors in limbo, coal miners with mines closed, manufacturing workers without anything to manufacture, academics sent packing due to budget restraints, refugees and, wait for it, even any number of Australian Prime Ministers losing their job ..... Who needs me?
The outworking of each of these is an / article / an essay / a study / a book / a library as each has so many different dimensions and side roads. Who needs me? Is indeed a vital question to our well being and a holistic world view.
Indeed a New Year question
As an evangelist, the question, Who needs me? becomes a central focus as the core message of the Gospel - that you / me are so valuable that Jesus Christ died on a Cross - for me personally. Christians recognise that without the Holy Spirit's intervention within a person's heart, Who needs me creates a brittle heart.
There have been many television series in recent years relating to disadvantage across the board and the critical question throughout is, 'Who needs me?' Suicide (youth or otherwise) in Australia is the second highest anywhere in the world. The question, Who needs me? - is a central issue. Men are particularly vulnerable where women dominate (its never about dad) or where there is a need to provide for their intimate women (such as farmers) - this question becomes paramount, 'Who needs me?'
My wife of 39 years Delma (40 years in February) regularly reports from her many community ministry engagements that widows / widowers are tormented by this question, Who needs me? Who is there to prepare dinner for? Who is there now to provide for? Human beings are remarkably designed in this manner.
2017 starts on Sunday. Perhaps 2017 is the year of helping each other to provide positive responses to the question - Who needs me?
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children. Dr Tronson writes a daily article for Christian Today Australia (since 2008) and in November 2016 established Christian Today New Zealand.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html