What is it that justifies your existence on this Earth? It is not a question we think of very often. Perhaps if we did we might live differently, choose more wisely, let go of a few things, take on others.

The question was raised for me when I read the story of Irena Sendler in yesterday’s newspaper. Irena was a social worker for the welfare department in Poland during WWII.  As a 29 year-old young woman she devised a plan and carried it out, with the help of her trusted co-workers, for smuggling nearly 2500 Jewish infants and children to safety. She meticulously recorded their names on slips of paper, placed those names in a jar, and buried it under an apple tree in the hopes that these children would be re-united with their families. Can you even imagine the courage, the dedication, the commitment? All this done in secret….without motivation for reward or recognition.

In fact, when she was being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, she said: "Every child saved with my help and the help of all the wonderful secret messengers, who today are no longer living, is the justification of my existence on this earth, and not a title to glory." Irena did what she did because it was the right thing to do….not because she was working toward, or for, any form of recognition.

Her statement made me think about what a ‘reward based’ culture we live in. From the time children are very small we give them medals, trophies, letters, stars for everything from a completed sports season to words spelled correctly.It can be quite a shock to when this practice does not continue into adulthood. I certainly admit that building self-esteem through affirmation is imperative. But I do think that, sometimes, it breeds an ‘I’ll do this because it gets me something’ kind of attitude and a mentality of entitlement. We can easily forget that doing something because it is the just thing to do is reward enough.

Justification is defined as: ‘to show adequate reason for something done….to show to be just, right or in accord with reason, to vindicate….the state or condition necessary for salvation, of being blameless or absolved of the guilt of sin.’  Daily we hear of people justifying their actions in so many ways, many to their own benefit, many to point the attention and direction toward another for a deed gone awry.

Irena sought to justify her existence through the compassionate, courageous action of saving the lives of the innocent, certainly at the risk of her own life. And then she systematically preserved the futures of these innocents by holding their names safe until they could be claimed.

It was a good life, a long life of 98 years…..perhaps, I believe, its own reward. May we each be able to say the same.

"For surely I know the plans I have for you, says God, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope."  Jeremiah 29:11