The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - You Are Unrepeatable

Episode Date: October 15, 2021

Do you ever feel like you’re different from everyone else? Today, Jeff invites us to marvel at the reality that each person is unrepeatable and a unique masterpiece of God’s creativity and love. Snippet from the Show “God has the ability to create billions of people and no two are the same.” Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show, episode 241. You're Unrepeatable. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven show.

Thank you for joining me this week, my unrepeachment. repeatable friend. It's good to have you with us. We're going to talk today about just how unique everybody is, how different we are from one another, yet we have so much in common. Hey, got a lot of feedback this week about the Insight Journal. People are catching hold of the Insight Journal. It's a journal that Sension is making available, one that Father Mike Schmitz and I put together to collect the gold in your life, to gather those insights and the truths that you put on post-it papers and you put them on little files in your phone and notebooks, and you can't remember where it is.

Well, anyway, we put together an insight journal. I've got mine right here, and I'm creating an insight journal. That is all the insights and the things I want my grandchildren to know about. I'm putting it together now, and when they turn 18, I'm going to hand it to them. and it's going to be a gift from from grandpa. That's the Insight Journal. I hope you do get it. We're going to talk about it in the future with Father Mike,

and hopefully you'll be able to enter into that world of capturing the gold. Hey, if you want the show notes, all you've got to do is text my name, Jeff Kaven's, one word to the numbers 3377. That's 33777. Okay, so do you feel like sometimes that, you're really different? I felt that way before where you feel like you're really, really different or you run into people who are an awful lot like you. The truth of the matter is you are unrepeatable and you are very different and you are very valuable to God. And I think

that once we realize just how different we are and how valuable we are, it really changes the way we treat people and the way we look at life in general. I remember a kind of a parable, but it was a story of, and I think it was true, actually, a story of someone who found an old, old painting in a junkyard. I think it was in a junkyard, and it just had mud on it and all kinds of gook and everything. And they got a hold of it and they started to clean it up. And lo and behold, they found out that it was actually a masterpiece done by one of the famous impressionist and that this painting that was thrown to the side like it was junk and had a

little tear in the canvas ended up becoming worth millions of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it became very, very valuable. And what the lesson that was learned in that was that something that actually looks like it's discarded and has garbage and dirt all over it. Underneath was very valuable and priceless, really. And that's the truth with every person that we look at as we live out our day. You know, as we're living out our day and we're walking by people, there are some people that you go by that you'd think, wow, that's a, what a beautiful human being. And then there's people that you don't even notice. But the truth of the matter is that both have infinite value in their lives, to their lives. They are,

very, very valuable. And so the world has literally never seen the combination of you and Jesus. Because if there's one word that describes Jesus, it is holy. And holy defined in a biblical sense means completely other, separate, distinct, unique. There's nobody like Jesus. He's the second person of the Trinity, creator of the world. He is utterly unique. And you, my friend, you're a piece of work. I mean that in a positive sense. You are really unique. You are unrepeatable. You are a piece of work. And you are God's work. And it's really amazing. And so when you take the combination of you who are very unique and God who is utterly unique and you bring the two together, you have a combination that the world has never seen, will never see in the future, never saw in the past.

It's you and Jesus. And he knew you in your mother's womb. That's pretty interesting, isn't it? That you are so unique, there's no two alike like you. And there's nothing like you and Jesus working together in his kingdom. There just isn't anybody like you. You are unique and different. I like what one translation of the Bible says in Jeremiah chapter 1.

It's the new living translation. I like reading that from time to time. It says, I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born, I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations. Isn't that interesting? I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born, I set you apart. In other words, you were different.

You're going to do something that only you can do. And I really believe, my friend, that when you were in your mother's womb, the same thing could be said about you. That before you were formed in your mother's womb, God knew you, Sarah, Joe, Mary, Benjamin, Tom, Lucille. God knew you. He knew you even before you were formed in your mother's womb. and he set you apart for something unique and something distinct. When you look at your life and the combination of you and Jesus, you will see a life that is going to encounter very unique circumstances, is going to meet a certain set of people, live in a certain

place, at a certain age in world history. You're going to go to school at a place where most of the world isn't going to go and you're going to end up working in a field that most people don't work in. And so you put all of that together. And my word, you are really something. Now, I'm not saying that in the sense of lack of humility or anything. I'm saying it in terms of, wow, you're really different. You really are unrepeatable. You see, God has the ability to create billions of people, and no two are the same. That is amazing. I know that when I was growing up, people said, there's no two snowflakes in the world. They're all unique and different. And I thought, huh, so I started studying them. True enough, I never found two alike. I'm kidding. But they melted.

I don't know if that's really true. I suppose it's true, but I do know this. Nobody is like you. nobody is like you the way you look the way you act and your circumstances your relationships your worldview all of it is very very unique it's amazing what god has done even children they are in your likeness your children are in your likeness but they're completely unique and that combination has never happened before and it is never going to happen in the future and i think to be honest with you this is what makes the crime of abortion so heinous is that every single child in the womb of its mother is a masterpiece. And not just a masterpiece that can be auctioned off at Christy's for $100 million.

No, this masterpiece is priceless. There's nothing like it in the world. It's not like there's a hundred thousand small children aborted and 100,000 medium children aborted and 100,000 black children aborted, or 100,000 white children. It was millions of unrepeatable people created in the image and likeness of God. Masterpieces, every one of them.

As a masterpiece, they are an extension of his brilliance and his holiness and his creativity and his utter, utter otherness. Funny thing about art museums when you think about it, I love going to them, and particularly looking at the impressionist, I love that. But it's a funny thing when you go into an art museum, whether it's the Louvre or in a Rotterdam or New York or Chicago, it's funny because the person standing in front of the Monet or standing in front of the Renoir or the Van Gogh or the Sicily is far, far, far, more valuable and infinitely more complex and beautiful than what they are staring at.

I remember a couple years ago going to Amsterdam and looking in the Van Gogh Museum, because I did my thesis on Vincent Van Gogh, on the spiritual dimensions of Vincent Van Gogh. And I was really taken with him and very interested in him. And so all these people had tickets to go on a certain day. And we went and we were in there looking at all of these amazing pictures by Vincent Van Gogh. And what was interesting is that none of us were looking at each other. We were looking at the picture. when the truth of the matter is what was looking at the pictures is far more interesting than that that paint on canvas.

Sometimes I think we miss it, don't we? I do believe that if we were all the same, probably wouldn't be people watching. Maybe the fact that you're unrepeatable means that you are an art show in yourself and that when people see you, they can sure enough say, I'll never see anything like that again. I'll never hear anybody like you again. I'll never experience another relationship like I have with you. That's how special you are and unrepeatable.

Now I could go on and on and wax eloquent about how different you are and maybe you'll get a puffed up head or something, but that's not really not the purpose of this podcast today. It's really to point to placing of value on people that will order our steps and our decisions and our kindness and the way we treat people. I love that story that Jesus tells in Mark chapter 12 and verse 16, starting in verse 13, actually, and going to verse 16. I'll put it in the show notes for you. It's a parable of the coin. They sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, why? To entrap him in his talk. And they came and they said to him, teacher, teacher, we know that you are true and care for no man, for you are not. You do not regard the position of men, but true. truly teach the way of God. Yay. Is it lawful? Let me ask you, Jesus, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Jesus said, in response to that, they say, should we pay taxes to Caesar? Should we pay them or should we not? But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, why put me to the test? Bring me a coin,

and let me look at it. And they brought one, and he said to them, whose likeness and inscription is this? And they said, it's Cesar's. And what did Jesus say? Then render to Caesar. What is Cesar's? Render to God. What is God's? And so the picture on the coin was Cesar's.

That was the image and lightness on the coin. So give it to him. But it's implied now, who are you created in the image and lightness of? You got it. You're created in the image and lightness of God. So using that logic about Caesar, give to God what belongs. to God. And what is that? You. You're created in the image and likeness of God. You're unrepeatable and you belong to God. And that's what Jesus was saying there. And it was a wake-up call

to realize that God chose you to become like him. You know, you could say this. You're a symphony. There's never been a person like you. In your circumstances, your gifts, your insights, your experience, your passion, you have been given opportunities that only you will experience. And you have met people in certain circumstances at certain times in their life that only you will experience. And here is the kicker. God wants to work with you, like a conductor and a symphony. He wants to take all of these beautiful aspects of your life that make you unrepeatable, and he wants to be the conductor and lead you in his plan of sheer goodness. I like so much what C.S. Lewis said, and I'm a real fan of C.S. Lewis, if you haven't got that yet,

you know, after listening to five or six of the shows, I really do appreciate C.S. Lewis, and he once said, and I think this is beautiful, and when I read this to you, just think about this as speaking about you or your mother, your father, your spouse, your children, the people that work. He said this. He said, there are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal, and we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all, all of life, all politics with this in mind. Isn't that something? I think that that is so powerful. There are no ordinary people. You've never talked to a mere mortal in your life. Every person that you've ever encountered is not ordinary. They are extraordinary.

Or as they say in England, extraordinary. They're extraordinary people and you've never talked to a mere mortal. Every person that you've ever encountered, every person that you helped, every person that you met or spoke to are not mere mortals. They're going to live forever. That's heavy stuff. They're going to live forever, either with God or without God. And the combination of you and Jesus working together as an unrepeatable construct can have an impact on people's lives. You know, C.S. Lewis said something else. I'll share this with you. Before we take a break, he said that he was very, very taken with the idea that Jesus would actually ask us to do things for him, you know, like pray for people or lay hands on the sick or whatever, whatever it might be.

And he was really thrown with this idea that what God can do infinitely, perfectly, you know, without, without any hitches at all, he gives his children that to do, us, who are filled with imperfections and, you know, a piece of work. Here's what he said. He said, he seems to do nothing of himself which he can possibly delegate to his creature. I'll stop there for a second. Isn't that interesting? Speaking of God, he, he seems to do nothing of himself which he can possibly delegate to his creature. He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what he could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye. perhaps he goes on we do not fully realize the problem so to call it of enabling finite free wills to coexist with omnipotence it seems to involve at every moment almost a sort of divine abdication i love that quote isn't it something that sure everything that he delegates to you we can do it in a slow and blunderingly way, but he can do it perfectly in the twinkling of an eye. Why? Why? Because he shares all things with us, his divine life, his grace, his mercy, his mission.

And for some reason, God loves to work with you. Put it in another way, God really digs you. He really, really does. And he loves to work with you. You're unrepeat. Think of it. Of all the people that have ever been created in the world, there are all of these masterpieces in the world that God has a relationship with. God wants to turn our attention, I believe, to what is eternal, lasting, what has permanent value. Why? Because it is a reflection of his own nature. God is eternal. He creates eternal children. He creates eternal children. sons and daughters, because we are eternal, there is immediately a price on our head that is astronomical.

You can't put a price on you. You really can't. And you can't put a price on me. But oh, how we do that, don't we? We put a price on people, what they're worth. They can serve me. I can use them. It costs me something, but I can use people and I can make people do this.

or that, if you have enough money and enough influence, and that's the shame of it, is that is that we have a utilitarian attitude towards women, whether it is women or men, the whole trafficking industry, for example, which is in the news these days, is a wake-up call to people who realize that people who are unrepeatable and unique and eternally valuable, there's a price on them. And that isn't right. And you and I need to call out in the streets for justice, stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. And that goes for the unborn as well. My friend, never, ever, ever become laissez-faire about the uniqueness of people and life and their value and to stand up for life. Don't ever do that. We're going to be back and talking a little

bit more about how unique we are and the eternal value and how to place our life in a position where we notice and we get involved with eternal things. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Am I saved? How do I develop a better prayer life? How do I trust in God? The Curious Catholic is a new series of by-size books from Ascension that answer these questions and more.

The Curious Catholic features small books from various authors that provide busy Catholics ways to go deeper into spiritual questions. The first three titles in the series are from Father Mike Schmitz, host of the Bible in a year podcast. Father Mike's books explore the topics of salvation, prayer, and trusting in God. To learn more about the Curious Catholic series, go to ascensionpress.com slash curious Catholic. That's ascensionpress.com slash curious Catholic. And welcome back to the show. Talking today about the fact that you are unrepeated.

God wants to really turn our attention to what is eternal, what is lasting, and what has permanent value here in life. And as I mentioned before the break, I think the reason is is because it is a reflection of his own nature. And God is eternal and, of course, priceless. And he creates priceless people. And you're one of them. You know, I was thinking about this on the break that even within the earthly realm here, daily life. We put a preference on certain things. For example, we prefer gold to tin. We prefer marble to plastic. And we prefer oak to plywood. Almost every object, it really has a certain worth based on the illusion of durability, permanence, beauty. We put a value on it. In a much truer sense,

I believe that God determines something's value by its eternal significance. We know that God's word, God's kingdom, and the souls of every person that he died for will remain after all turns to dust. So it's another way of saying, you're unrepeatable. And Jesus even hints about this in Matthew chapter 6, verses 19 and 20, and I'll put it in notes for you. He said, with this in mind, everything we've been talking about, he said, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust consumes and where

thieves do not break in and steal. So we have this look at treasures here on earth, and treasures can go bad if they are subject to moths and rust and so forth. And that's why Jesus said, this isn't really where we should be laying up treasure here on earth. But the place that we should be laying up treasure is the place where they will not be consumed by rust or destroyed by maws. That's in heaven. And so again, everything that we do in the people that we interact with, we hope that the goal of all of our work will be gold, silver, precious stones, but not wood hay and stubble, things that are going to go away. And in order to lay up treasures in heaven, we're going to have to be aware of the fact that

all throughout the day, every single day, today, tomorrow, next week, last week, we were, we are we will be faced with decisions the temporal or the eternal the short term or the long term every day think with me for a moment right now just just today maybe you're running or you're in the car whatever you might be doing maybe you're you're washing the car in the driveway i don't know but just today you have had to make some decisions about temporal versus eternal what you're going to go after what you're going to lay your heart into. And we have to do that every single day. And of all the temptations you will face, this may be the toughest, the temptation to exchange the eternal for the temporal. Now, I'll give you a little clue, cliff note. That's what Adam and

Eve did. It's exactly what Eve did is she traded the eternal rather, the creator in the relationship with the creator for the temporal, the creation. She grasped for it, so did Adam. And that's where the mistake happens. That's when we leave the rails when we do that. Because why? Well, we, we're an awful lot like Esau, for example. Esau in the Old Testament. He traded the holy for the common, the eternal for the temporal in Genesis 25. Remember that? Hebrews 12 comments on it. I'll put it in the show notes for you. Hebrews 12 calls Esau an immoral and profane individual. That's a pretty strong language. A profane person is one who, for the sensual gratification or amusement of the moment, gives up that which is spiritual and unseen to be careless of that which is holy. So as to

snatch the present enjoyment, in short, practically not to deem anything holy at all if it stands in the way of present pleasure. Thank you, Esau. A profane individual. I remember years ago, I heard this story by a Protestant evangelical, I think preacher Anthony Campolo. And he was telling the story about working in a hardware store. And what he did is, you know, in a hardware store, they've got everything marked. Screws are five cents a piece. A saw is $75. A screwdriver is $6.95.

And everything is marked in the store. And these guys thought it would be very, very funny to, in the middle of the night, come in and switch the price tags. And to put expensive price tags on very cheap things and cheap prices on things that were actually very expensive. have been very, very valuable. So you would end up with a snowblower, Google it in the South, we use them up here,

snowblower for $4.95 and a hammer for $823, you know, that type of thing. And so the next day when the store opens up and people come in, they are completely confused by the price tag on that particular item. And I got to thinking about that. I remember hearing that story long ago, and I thought, you know, for this particular show, man, isn't that true? We're confused. We're confused.

We're putting cheap price tags on things that are actually very, very valuable. And we're putting big price tags, lots of value on things that are actually quite cheap. And that really mixes us up, doesn't it? What are we talking about? You're unrepeatable. You're valuable. You're precious in God's eyes. That's right. I like what St. Thomas talks about, you know, when he talks about prudence, and it fits in here so well. And that is that we have a goal. We have some place that we want to end up in our life. And so we go to that goal. And for us, it's the beatific vision to be with God forever face to face. And then we back up to the present day and then we make prudent decisions to get there. But we must not lose sight of our goal. We must not take our eyes off of Christ and put them on to cheap things as if that is the goal in our life. And likewise, we can't put a cheap price tag on people and consider

them nothing or insignificant or irrelevant to God or my life. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, he said one time, we always pay dearly for chasing after what is cheap. We always pay dearly for chasing after what is cheap. St. Augustine said, idolatry is worshipping anything that ought to be used or using anything that is meant to be worshipped. My friend, you are priceless, you are unrepeatable. Thomas Akempus said it, well, let temporal things serve your use,

but the eternal be the object of your desire. Put that in the show notes. It's free of charge. And let me kind of go into the airport here for this week by sharing with you a beautiful song by a guy called Scott Wesley Brown called Things. Talking about things at the hardware store and things that we put great value on

and devalue the things that are actually quite valuable, the unrepeatable people. In this song, here's the lyrics that's beautiful. He says, things upon the mantle, things on every shelf, things that are, others gave me, things I gave myself, things I've stored in boxes that don't mean much anymore, old magazines and memories behind the attic door, things on hooks and hangers, things on ropes and rings, things I guard that blind me to the pettiness of things. Am I like the rich young ruler

ruled by all I own? If Jesus came and asked me, could I leave them all alone? O Lord, I look to heaven beyond the veil of time To gain eternal insight that nothing's really mine And to only ask for daily bread and all contentment brings To find freedom as your servant in the midst of all these things For discarded in the junkyards, rusting in the rain lie the things that took the finest years of lifetimes to obtain. And whistling through these tombstones, the hollow breezes sing,

a song of dreams surrendered to the tyranny of things. My friend, you're unrepeatable. Act like it. Father, I pray right now for my friend that you had you would help them to clearly see the price tag on their life and that they are priceless, unrepeatable, beautiful in every way, and the combination of you and them together

produces a construct that the world has never seen before but desperately needs. Jesus, may we truly be your disciples and your servants as we serve you day in and day out. May we not be victims of the tyranny of things. Amen. Love you.