You Are Necessary

by Emily Conrad

I went to France with a program from my high school. Two other Emilys came, too, and yet another stayed back home. Considering the group couldn't have been more than twenty of us, that's a huge percentage of Emilys.

A family moved in next door to mine when I was a child, and their eldest daughter shared both my first and middle name. She also had the same last initial. 

Really, how many Emilys does one community need?

Of course, Emily is just a superficial name. Though I have many commonalities with the Emilys I've known--first name, nationality, hometown, race, even sometimes religion and hobbies--we each have our own personalities. And so, I've come to terms with having a common name.

It's not quite so easy for me to come to terms with having a common calling.

I'm a writer, and I'm in very good company.

My message of hope in Jesus, though important, isn't unique. In fact, there's another Emily that writes a similar message well to a much larger audience than I do.

And so, sometimes, I feel a little bit extra. A little bit unnecessary and not quite significant.

The "I'm just another __________" syndrome strikes us all sometimes, doesn't it?

I'm just another writer. I'm just another stay at home mom. I'm just another wife. I'm just another accountant. I'm just another teacher. I'm just another ______________.
 
And yet, God has deemed each of us necessary. Before founding the world, God imagined me and you and determined that in this time and in this place, the existence of yet another _________ was just the thing.

How do I know this? Well, there are Bible verses (check out Ephesians 1:3-10 and Ephesians 2:10), but there's also fungus.

Yup. Fungus.
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