More Than a Smattering of Mattering

The fact is, we’re linguistically lazy in this culture - increasingly more and more so - and rely on expressions that may not say exactly what we mean.

One is, “No matter” or "It doesn't matter."  This is one way of saying let’s-be-done-with-this, or oh-forget-it, or it’s-not-a-big-deal.  We say it doesn’t matter, and maybe it doesn’t. But maybe it does.  Doesn’t everything matter to some extent?

Maybe whatever matters to me also matters to another person, or maybe he/she could care less.  Maybe we both pretend to matter, or maybe we both work at cultivating each other’s preferences and viewpoints.

Maybe I matter to him/her more than I know, but in ways that matter to him/her (because of my role, for example) instead of ways that matter to me (my intrinsic being).  Is that so wrong? Maybe some other person really matters to me, but I have a hard time expressing myself in a way he/she can hear and understand.  Is that anyone’s fault? Maybe, after all, he/she may have the same problem in regard to me.

I say all of this only because it is my firm belief that 1.) we matter to God, much more than just a smattering, because we were created for relationship with Him, 2.) we matter to each other, much more than just a smattering, because we were created for relationship with each other, and 3.) whatever matters to us also matters to God and to others, because all of life intertwines.  We cannot, even if we want to, live in a vacuum. 

Sometimes we don’t believe that we matter, or that what matters to us matters to anyone else.  We throw up smoke screens to blockade God and/or each other in order to lessen the risk of pain.  Circumstances can also jump in and tangle things. It’s easy to either explode or else or clam up out of desperation. 

So we end up using phrases like, “It doesn’t matter” just to keep going, when actually the legions of words behind those few will eventually seep out of the seams by virtue of internal volcanic pressure.  And so tonight I ask myself, “Why not take the risk and let the cat out of the bag sooner rather than later?”  After all, I matter.  So do you.  We might as well figure out what matters to each other.