I want to share someone with you. What I have in mind is trying to communicate how I feel about the value of people. So, I want to tell you about a young friend of mine, and I hope he will not be offended if I share with you some of his very own thoughts. Believe me, I'll tell him what I've told you.

First though, I have to say that I hate it when people become depersonalised ? when they are made into objects to be used by others or when they devalue themselves and lose their humanity, their spark for life.

We are amazing creatures.

I challenge you to really delve into the way we are made and how our systems function in a complex and interdependent fashion. I know it astounds me.

In the Bible it says that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made". I'm sure you can find this kind of awe expressed in other places.

At his moment, in contemplating what it means to be a person, I am saddened when any one person is made into a two-dimensional cartoon for the use of someone else or some societal process.

For instance, we are not just white or black. In fact, none of us is purely white or black, but that is another discussion.

My young friend is a musician and composer. I first met him in a brand new church. The church had just formed in the northwest part of the city of Portland, Oregon.

Before that it met in a dancehall, above a restaurant and right next door to where they brewed beer.

There was a sound stage there too, which fit well with the group, and my friend struck me as a wonderful match, for he was a touring musician, playing in a band, working nights in one such room after another while his new wife waited for him back home in Portland.

Of course, that is not all there is to him, nor of the life he has together with his wife and his friends.

Without knowing what goes through his head though, he could look like any other guy in a band trying to make it big in the world.

It's when you see him respond to God in church, or when you listen to him talk about music that you see there is much more to this person than a typical head banging, out-of-control band member. And THAT is my point.

There usually IS more to a person once you listen to them, once you see them in a different context.

My friend wrote recently: "I have started something called the Music Population Project. You can find more details on our website http://thempp.com. In short, it is an effort in bringing chamber music back to the people."

Along with the MPP, he says that he has also started the Music Population Orchestra, which puts these ideologies into practice.

He believe that whereas chamber groups and symphony orchestras are in a constant battle to meet their financial needs, he and his associates build on volunteer labour and a passion strong enough to work for free.

He compares it to a rock band that tries to get established, playing concerts, practising and creating an audience with the hope that some day there will be a demand great enough for their music that they will make some money on it.

He also says that he believes he sees God at work through the project, working in diverse ways in various people.

He is a young man, full of energy and large ideas. He is an idealist with a vision and a mission, and he is a gifted and talented human being.

He is a relational person who has the love and devotion of many people, not the least of whom is his wife, and he is an organisational person who can put together groups of people doing complex tasks.

My friend is fearfully and wonderfully made. I love what I know of him, and I want to know more.

I can stand on the shore at sunrise and marvel at God's beauty in nature, but when it comes to human beings such as my friend, gazing long into them puts me on my knees.