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07 December 2024
Do humans need humans? In a sense, yes, but if you focus on the statement "I need humans" too much, it can get you to think "I need to be dependent on the humans around me" (like insisting that you drink from the stream nearby since if you don't drink from any stream, you'll die of thirst). If the humans around you aren't reliable, lack vision or are even poisonous in their own right, then you will lose your vision or be poisoned by them. They can lead you away from the truth, even though it may have been out of a principled desire to believe what is true that you emphasized to yourself "I need humans". Additionally, saying "I need humans" emphasizes "I need", your neediness in general; and human neediness, no matter what the object, is heavy, burdensome. Perhaps "I need" not only emphasizes "need", but also "I", an isolating and burdensome word when it is insisted on.
So "I need humans" can be a deceptive truth. What then? There is a lot of freedom in saying "I live to serve others, not to have my needs met". This is a simplistic statement. It's not 100% literally true. But it may be less misleading than "I need humans". There is freedom in taking the focus off of need, and off of dependence on humans. If you get caught up in actually serving others, you don't think about "I" as much. So overall your life is less heavy, for a given amount of external stress.
What about God? What does God need? What are the possibilities? One is that he needs there to be an end to sin. God couldn't bear endless sin. He has a desire for each of us to be saved.
If we can focus on serving others rather than our needs, why can't God focus on serving us (saving us) and not on his needs (that there be an end to sin)? The difference is that God is universal, and we are finite. (The Speaker / Universal Validator is universal.) As finite beings, we are incapable of perceiving every truth. So we focus on what least misleads us. But God (the Universal person) necessarily has to see every truth. So while God can focus on serving us, he also can't help but see his own need in its full heaviness.
It may seem that saying "I live to serve" over "I need" is always better for humans. But "I need" connects you to "I need there to be an end to sin". Perhaps also within the desire for people to be saved, there is some heaviness and need. Burden-bearing is good, and in this case, "I need" would be connected with something essential. Some needs seem much more compelling than they actually are. The psychological needs for water, food, or sleep can only be ignored at your own peril. This is less true of the psychological needs for social or sexual fulfillment, as obsessively as they may work on you. "I need for there to be an end to sin" is an acquired taste, which gives you part of the heart of God.
If you live among people who say "I need" rather than "I live to serve", for you to say "I need" teaches you what it's like to be them, which may be useful.