Over the last several weeks, I’ve been struck repeatedly by the difference between valuing people and simply using them.  In part that stems from what has become all too common in the public realm:  blindly defending people who seem useful politically while mercilessly attacking those who are not “useful.”  Think about even the simple interactions we have with people at the grocery store or drive-through.  Obviously they’re there to do a job, and we expect them to do it.  Their employers need them to do it.  But if all people are “good” for is to perform a function for us or someone else, then replacing them with machines or touch-screens is no big deal.  Or is it?

All of that is a way to get to the real question I’ve been grappling with:  Do we pastors and church leaders simply “use” people, even though we might couch it in terms of wonderful and important things like “mission” and “ministry.”  I’m not saying it’s our intention to simply “use” them, but I can’t help but wonder.  For instance, do we want to know peoples’ spiritual gifts or leadership “strengths” so that we can truly honor them by helping them find fulfillment through ministry?  Or are we more interested in figuring out how they can “fit in” to our own agenda or further our own goals and dreams?  Or think about our attitudes to certain people regarding their financial support:  Do we value them–or just their money?

I’ll be the first to admit that these are uncomfortable questions–especially for those of us who are goal and task oriented.  And, again, I’m not saying that we don’t value others.  I am trying to remind myself and others that the real value of people is not in what they bring, offer, or give.

I recently heard a pastor friend remind his congregation that God doesn’t just tolerate us, he loves us.  Each and every person–each and every person–is a unique creation of God, created in God’s image and loved deeply by the Creator.  God’s love has nothing to do with how smart, gifted, accomplished or personable we are.  It has nothing to do with status, power, gender or race.  It has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that we are human.  How different the world–and even the Church–would be if we could not only accept that for ourselves, but also accept it for others.  A line in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment says it all:  “If you don’t respect others, you harm yourself…”