The Need to be Needed

Did you know that there is not one, but several pages in Facebook that are all dedicated to earn you more followers, apparently for all social media? One such page is this. When I first saw this page, I really couldn't believe my eyes. There are actually people who group together to gain more followers. The idea sounded preposterous at first, but it makes perfect sense: people need to be needed. 

...the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.

Man was not supposed to be alone - even God thought so. That was why God created other people so we don't have to be lonely and grumpy all the time. And even if we felt grumpy, God had made sure that there will be someone who could give us a lift during those bad hair days. 

Conversely, just as we need people, we also need to be needed, to some degree, depending on our experiences as persons. When I was a kid, I envied the likes of Indiana Jones, and even hated him a bit, because he was getting all the fame and the  attention of my friends and I wasn't. There he was, a scruffy-looking nerf-herder (oops wrong movie!) running away from boulders and Nazis, using his whip to swing like Tarzan, and saving the world. And there I was, an insignificant, lonely oaf. Just like all the lonely oafs looking for more followers in Facebook nowadays. 

The fact is that there are lonely people out there, many of them young people, using technology and the internet to reach out to people who could fill the void in their hearts; everyone needs someone who needs them. 

How good is Facebook, and for that matter, the whole of social media, in creating and fostering friendships? 

This generation may have become very adept at modern technology, at the expense of our relationships. Many young people here in our beloved Philippines are faced with the grim reality of broken homes. McCann-Erickson made a study in the 90s and found out that among their respondents, 40% said that they came from broken families. 

What happened to the rest of the families who are still whole? Uhm...

The family that plays together...levels up together.

The most depressing thing to see nowadays are whole families glued to their tablets and cellphones. The communication between family members have stopped because they are too busy 'communicating' with their gadgets. 

People need to feel that they are important. I don't think that is a sentiment that will ever go away. I just hope that we do our part in reaching out to those who need us to need them, even though they may not recognize that need at first. Once people feel that they are important, and that they are needed, and that they are loved - they become better persons. 

This is what the Lord did to Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a very wealthy man who overtaxed his people and helped himself with the extra dough. For all his wealth, he must have been a very lonely man; I could imagine that people around him were fake friends who loved him only for his money. When he learned that Jesus was passing by, he climbed up a Sycamore tree, 1. because he was too short and the crowd stood in his way (in Filipino, we say maliit siya, or more accurately, minaliit siya ng tao.) 2. his default reaction was always to have people look up to him at any expense, hence the climbing of the tree. People naturally want to feel important, including Zacchaeus. 

OMG! He has gone to stay at a sinner's house! ROTFL! 

Jesus, however, blew the crowd away, and blew Zacchaeus away for that matter, with what he said: to come down from that tree because he will be having drinks at his house. Boom. Zacchaeus felt affirmed and loved. The result was one of the most famous conversion stories in the bible. 

There is so much work to be done. There are countless people out there who are in pain, suffering, feeling alone, and feeling unloved. It might be a good idea to stand up from your chair from time to time and reach out to these people (you would be surprised that you do not have to look far to find them!) My college mentor did this for me, and I do not know what I would be right now if not for him. I am obliged to pay it forward - to touch people's lives so they could pass on the light.