How Can We Counter The Struggle Of Feeling Insignificant As Only One Out Of A Billion Others In God’s Creation?

The Bible declares clearly that God created us. We are not here by accident. We have purpose and meaning. Furthermore, in all that God created in the universe, mankind is elevated above all creation. No other creature possesses spiritual and intellectual capacities and moral character and is called to be friends with God. We have the honor and responsibility to steward and care for what He created. This is a privileged position.

Jesus highlights our worth in a simple example.

He says in Matthew 10:29-31, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (NIV).

We have more worth than any other creature on earth. That worth exists because God is there and says we have worth.

If life evolved from chance, then without God as a purposeful Creator the ultimate meaning to life bears no relevance to our beliefs and worth. Having evolved, we are nothing more than the smartest of beasts. As animals, the survival of the fittest rules. Might makes right. Therefore, the least fit Homo sapiens struggle the most with worthlessness. But even those at the top of the power ladder only survive temporarily and must face their replacement. Is not Ecclesiastes accurate about life without God when it says, “‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher. ‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless’” (1:2 NIV)?

But life is not meaningless but meaningful. We are at the apex of Creation. 

We read in Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.’”

Again, in reading Genesis, we understand that humans are not animals but distinct from animals. God the Creator created human beings in His image as the climax to His holy and perfect blueprint. He designed them with meaning, purpose, and rule.

My son-in-law, Matt Reed, has voiced his delight as a believer who came to Christ as an adult, that the account in Genesis informed and inspired him about his place in the world. As an energy expert, he feels the stewardship of the planet is purposeful, privileged, significant, and valued. Whereas before finding Christ, though he favored environmentalism, he had no sense of this as God’s call. After seeing God as Creator and mankind as the apex of His creation, Matt engaged his stewardship as noble and holy.

The call to steward should invigorate us all. However, some do not go there. Instead, they do the numbers game. If everyone is part of the apex, then I am one among billions.

Some mentally struggle with the immensity of the population. Since every other human is part of the apex of creation, that reduces my unique significance. I am nothing much.

I struggled with this early in my faith.

Two years after I came to Christ, I attended Wheaton College, a Christian institution. Entering this Christian culture with some of the brightest and best among conservative Christians, I had to face myself head on. I had only been a believer a short while. I had little idea that other Christ followers could be so mature and talented. When I stepped on campus, the first three people I met stunned me with their gifts and genius. I met an All-American football player who looked like Atlas, a concert pianist who played in nationally recognized venues, and a national merit scholar who had his own radio program. Within minutes I felt flooded with the feelings that I was in the wrong place; I was inadequate and a nobody. This put me in a place where many of us find ourselves when we ask, “Do I even matter compared to others who are smarter and better than me?” 

But I came to a point where I countered this with a speculative thought. I said, “Lord, I am going to trust that I am important to You, like I walk this earth as though no one else is here, and You are focused on me as Your sole concern as the apex of Your creation. Lord, I feel presumptuous in such a pretentious notion, so forgive me, but it helps me believe in the privilege and importance of my standing.”

This was one way of countering the false idea of my worthlessness.

I recommend you do the same. Rehearse the script that you alone are the only human ever created. If that were true, how would God feel about you, and how would you feel about how God felt about you? I predict you would feel immeasurably important and touched.

The truth is, in God’s kingdom, there is no partiality, and God feels about us what we believe He’d feel about us if we alone lived on the planet. God is unaffected by numbers. Thankfully, I never felt rebuked by God for this thought. Truly, He feels no less about me because others populate the planet. It is wrong to think we are less important because He sees others as equally valued at the apex.

God’s love for you remains undiminished, regardless of the vastness of the human race. You have a unique stewardship. You can care for His creation, His creatures, and His church. This matters to Him.