Note: These realities are taken from Fr. Richard Rohr.

There’s an interesting tension with this reality.

On the one hand, you are infinitely loved and cherished by God, an unrepeated and unrepeatable utterance of the Creator.

On the other hand, you really aren’t that big of a deal.

When you begin to believe that you are somehow more important than others, entitlement can begin to seep into your life (see the previous idea: “Life is Hard”).

But reality rightly perceived says that EVERY human being on earth is equally cherished and loved, and has equal value.

Are you more entitled than your brothers and sisters? Their hoes, dreams, aspirations and struggles are just as valid—and just as real—as yours.

In this is an opportunity for compassion and empathy for others, if you can check and deflate your ego enough to receive it.

Even more, to maintain that somehow you are more important—either better or worse off—than everyone else, you establishing an essential separateness from others, and this separateness does no one any good.

The goal of life is connection and unity with others, not division and separation.

God is a unified reality, so to pursue unity and connection is to pursue God’s life in your life, God’s reality in your reality.

But it all begins with disavowing yourself of the thought that you are somehow NOT just “one of the herd,” that you are really important enough to warrant special treatment from life.

Everyone is struggling through something, yourself included. Find unity and connection in that.