Unique or worthless?

I realise that I have issues with finding a balance between feeling special and feeling like a small blob in an infinite universe.
I was an only child to a single parent and was fortunate enough to believe that I was the most special thing on the planet. This had its down side as you can imagine!
Growing older has given me wisdom enough to take out this dilemma and examine it occasionally and balance the delight in myself with a healthy dose of "you're nothing compared to the vast expanse of space". More frequently these days I need to do a lot more "actually, you know you're not that bad!"
Being a Christian compounds this dilemma. We're special- God died for us as individuals but that intimate relationship puts us in the direct spotlight of an all powerful God. We are made in his image, but everything we offer is like the painting of a 2 year old- loved but feeble.
Yesterday we had a sermon about a goldfish and an ice cream. On discovering that their pet goldfish was lying immobile in the bowl, the dad promised his son that they could have ice cream. The fish then started swimming and the boys talked about killing the goldfish so that they could still get the ice cream. The point was do we do things for others or for ourselves? This ties in with how we view ourselves. In a consumer led society, we believe we are right and that we have a right to whatever we want. As a Christian, we should put others first. What does that mean? I don't think it means always seeing yourself as a microbe in the universe. We still need to know our worth and value. It is with that foundation we realise how much we have been given and then want to give that away to others.
It's a hard balance to strike.

Letters from a refugee

I really like this article on the BBC website about a woman's letters back to her sister in Iran. A pleasant and touching insight

Royal Mail

Trying not to be a grumpy English person bemoaning the fall in standards of the British postal service but I just can't help it! I remember when we had two deliveries a day and the first would be before 9am. I'm lucky now to see the postie before 12pm. I guess it doesn't make much difference but I draw the line at this. Stuff goes missing in the mail and then Royal Mail gets to sell the goodies off and keep the profit? I don't think so! Isn't that theft? Doesn't seem that much effort is made to re-unite people with their belongings. Once a bit of effort is made (how about creating a lost items website where people can type in the details of the item lost and do a search on a database?) to link the owner with the item, then maybe they could sell the items to raise money for a charity. What do you think?