Is everybody "special?"

[Dave McClung]

I once had a pastor who was known for saying that people are "special." To him everyone was "special."

Tonight the program I was watching ended and a cartoon named "Mr. Incredible" came on. I was too busy to change he channel I didn't really follow the plot, but I heard the mother in the program say to a child, "Everybody is special." The kid responded, "That is just another way of saying that nobody is special."

Think about it. If everyone is special does it meant that nobody is special?

[Mike Wooldridge]

Nobody is special to everybody but everybody wants to be special to somebody. It's very lonely not to be special to anybody.

[Bob Wright]

Special has a number of meanings. One is: Distinct among others of a kind. Every person is unique, even what we call identical twins. In that sense, I think we can say everyone is special. I'm reminded of that song: "He knows my name." In God's eyes, each of us is His special creation. That does not mean that everyone is exceptional in their abilities or characteristics as the world might view them. I also think every is special to somebody or some group of people, and in that context I think we can also say, although it might not be universal in scope, that everyone is special. We are all special to God, and that is what matters most.

I do see your point. I'm just not sure I agree with that statement. If everyone was beautiful, would that mean that nobody beautiful? If everyone is distinct, does it mean that nobody is distinct? I wonder.

[Jim Franklin]

The answer to Dave's query is and emphatic, "No." There are just some who do not qualify. I agree with Mike about wanting to feel that each of us would like to think that there is someone who considers them "special" for as he says it is very lonely without that connection.

[Hans Deventer]

Think about it. If everyone is special does it meant that nobody is special?

I think it depends on the emotional ring to it. Everyone is different and unique. It that's what the guy was saying, he's right.

However, "every one is special" sounds like, "everyone is special to me" and if that is the meaning, the boy was right, for that is impossible. You can't have a special relationship with everyone, in my view. I agree with Mike.

[Anne and Dwayne Hood]

That reminds me of a song Dwayne sings to me-You are my special angel.
We are all special to HIM. But, in a way, I understand what the little boy meant.

[Brad Mercer]

If everyone is special does it meant that nobody is special?

No, I think it more nearly means -- or ought to mean -- that everyone has something about them that makes them uniquely valuable.

Brad

[Dave McClung]

I once had a pastor who was known for saying that people are "special." To him everyone was "special."

Tonight the program I was watching ended and a cartoon named "Mr. Incredible" came on. I was too busy to change he channel I didn't really follow the plot, but I heard the mother in the program say to a child, "Everybody is special." The kid responded, "That is just another way of saying that nobody is special."

Think about it. If everyone is special does it meant that nobody is special?


In my own mind, I think I have answered the question. Several of you arrived at the same answer. I think the answer is that every one of us is special because there are no two of us who are exactly alike. There is at least one thing for which we can feel like we are different from everyone else around us.

Being around grandchildren this week, really brought the point home. I can't tell you how many times a kid would say, "Granddaddy, look at me. I can ....." One time it was turning a summersalt. Another time it was coloring a pretty picture. What ever it was, the child wanted my attention because they did something special.

I guess we are all like that. We want to feel like there is something that makes us different from everyone else in a positive way.

The point was brought home again this morning. We had 5 peope join our church. The interim pastor has something nice to say about each one -- something about each that caused them to stand out from the crowd. He could have gone through the entire congregation and pointed out something about every individual that made them special.

So to answer my own question -- even if I say to everyone in the congregation that they are "special", I am not saying that nobody is special. It is true that everyone is special in some respect.

[Mike Schutz]

I remember the first time I put my daughter on a school bus. I wanted to go with her, telling every adult she met that day, "Treat her like she is special!"

I believe that this is the way God wants us to treat every person we ever meet.

The moment we stop looking for, and stop caring about, the unique creation of God in every person is the moment we stop seeing God in them. At that is a horrible danger.

Every single person is special.

[David Pettigrew]

Many today use the word "special" as a synonym for "mentally challenged", so in that sense I'm sure everyone is special - some more special than others.

I once visited with a staff member of Cliff Temple Baptist Church. I asked him what his church was known for, and he said "Well, we have one congregation that is 100% mentally challenged, except for the pastor. We've been written up in Newsweek because we're the only one in the country."

My reply - "Oh no you're not."

[Gina Stevenson]

That reminds me of a song Dwayne sings to me-You are my special angel.
We are all special to HIM. But, in a way, I understand what the little boy meant.

Oh, yeah; we know that song ... it's from the 50s, right? Good oldie there. ;)

Many today use the word "special" as a synonym for "mentally challenged", so in that sense I'm sure everyone is special - some more special than others.

I once visited with a staff member of Cliff Temple Baptist Church. I asked him what his church was known for, and he said "Well, we have one congregation that is 100% mentally challenged, except for the pastor. We've been written up in Newsweek because we're the only one in the country."

My reply - "Oh no you're not."

'Sounds vaguely familiar; is that the one of which Tony Evans is pastor? If not, he's somewhere in that neighborhood, I think, isn't he?

*************
FINALLY, tho' they've been mentioned here & there, and their music proliferates all over the place, the Gaither song about everyone being "SPECIAL" is still a very good one:

You're something special, you're the only one of a kind,
God gave you a body, and a bright, healthy mind.
He had a special purpose he wanted you to find,
So He made you something special,
You're the only one of a kind.

[Dennis M. Scott]

Coincidentally, the television in our home was on to that presentation, too. From the little I picked up - and I admit I'm not an avid fan of such material - it seems that everyone who is "good" is some sort of super-hero, and even a few of the "bad" guys, too, want more than anything else, to be seen as a super-hero. My grandson, Joshua, said when he grows up he wants to be a super-hero. When I asked why, he replied, "'Cause I like the costumes."

Super-heroes, huh? Sounds like they all just want to be pastors.

Except, I guess, for the costumes.

[Brad Mercer]

Daddy always wanted to pastor in some area where it was routine for Nazarene pastors to wear a clerical collar, because then he'd have a cool costume, too.

Brad

Coincidentally, the television in our home was on to that presentation, too. From the little I picked up - and I admit I'm not an avid fan of such material - it seems that everyone who is "good" is some sort of super-hero, and even a few of the "bad" guys, too, want more than anything else, to be seen as a super-hero. My grandson, Joshua, said when he grows up he wants to be a super-hero. When I asked why, he replied, "'Cause I like the costumes."

Super-heroes, huh? Sounds like they all just want to be pastors.

Except, I guess, for the costumes.

[Marg Webb]

As far as I know, I have never been "special" to anyone.
At least I have never heard that.
But had a wonderful statement said to me just a short while ago. One of my friends daughter's said to me, Marg. "you are a steadfast person". WOW. NOW THAT IS REALLY SPECIAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gina Stevenson]

As far as I know, I have never been "special" to anyone.
At least I have never heard that.
But had a wonderful statement said to me just a short while ago. One of my friends daughter's said to me, Marg. "you are a steadfast person". WOW. NOW THAT IS REALLY SPECIAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Marg, I'd guess that you're very "special" to George ... "special" enough that you became Mrs. Webb. ;) 'Hope George is doing better.

[Jim Franklin]

By saying "special" is synomynous with unique might also mean that unique is synomynous with odd. Because I am conservative and care little about following modern popular trends makes most of the members here consider me "odd" but that does not make me "special."

[Jon Twitchell]

Have you ever gone to a local/zone/district Festival of Life event (that's ENC's name for their regional youth event) where every student got a blue ribbon/gold medal? Have you ever gone to a science fair where everyone got an "excellent"? Have you walked away at least a little bit perturbed, because by giving everyone the "best" rating, the judges didn't really elevate the poorer students, but diminished the contribution of those who were truly excellent? Have your communities argued the value of putting all the students together in one classroom, or separating the students into tracks based on academic ability?

Maybe that doesn't happen in your part of the country...but it does around here.

When I heard the line, I thought of those sorts of examples. By saying "everyone got a gold," we really say, "you're all the same." And maybe we've communicated that they were all fairly poor.

I could be wrong (of course, it's happened before), but I think that's the idea that the filmmakers were trying to communicate. (Who knows, it might have been a response to "no child left behind.")

And Dennis, I love superhero movies...precisely for that reason (not the costumes), but because it reminds me of my own tendency toward superheroism as a pastor... and that it can actually be a destructive force in relationships.

(And, I do wear a clerical collar on occasion... guess that's part of my superhero complex! :) )

[Jill Mickelson]

I heard some GREAT messages on the radio today....two of them mentioned that God has a SPECIAL PLAN and PURPOSE for each of us. So we are ALL SPECIAL! Jeremiah 29:11-13

[Billy Cox]

I have heard the presentations about genetic uniqueness and the astronomical odds involved with successful human conception. When I frist heard these, I was initially impressed but as my mind chewed on it, I realized that those facts are meaningless.

So what if nobody else in the world is genetically identical to me?

Every one of the Egyptians that died in the Red Sea was unique, but nobody seemed to blink an eye at drowning every one of them and then throwing a victory party even as corpses were washing ashore.

I think that the 'everybody is special' mantra is a sham, although it is surely a boon for companies that produce anti-depressant drugs; softening the fall for those whose delusions of grandeur eventually collide with reality. It is also the reason that shows like American Idol are so popular. Talent shows with real winners and losers cut through the cultural mythology that everybody can be number one if they just want it bad enough.

Far be it from me to simply curse the darkness... I think that the more accurate statement is to say that everyone is valuable. That's also a little more applicable to the majority of us who will never be a Moses but might do pretty well among the ranks of the nameless Israelites.