In a sermon last Sunday the preacher summed up the Christian Gospel in four words: ‘You matter; you belong!’

He then quoted Clinebell’s summary of Glasser’s ‘two essential needs: to love and be loved; and to feel worthwhile’ and Clinebell’s summary of these into one: ‘to experience authentic love in a dependable relationship’.

Clinebell derived from this basic need five others:

* a sense of worth

* responsible living

* inner freedom

* a sense of meaning, and

* a loving, trustful relationship with God.

~ Walter Conn: The Desiring Self

The preacher once talked with an alcoholic, and asked him ‘What would you like to be? A champion footballer? A football coach?’

Response: ‘No. I’d just like to be a human being.’