Assigning Value
It’s been a while, huh? Hopefully, now that a busy summer is past, I can begin to post regularly again.
I have been reminded several times this summer of something that I should have remembered all along. It is an important lesson for all of us to learn as Christians – one that some would argue can make the greatest impact on our lives.
It’s the simple fact that my worth – in the great perspective of things – comes from my being a child of God, and nothing more. I’m not valuable because I’m a pastor, because I’m a musician, because I’m a good father or husband. I’m not valuable because of the sermons I preach, the songs I write, the gifts I give to my family or my contributions to the economy and the workforce. I’m not valuable because I have a blog or a website, because I’ve been on a mission trip or have answered God’s call to ministry.
I’m valuable to the One Who Matters for a very simple reason – because that One made me, and made me in his image.
Value is a tricky thing. We all (intentionally or not) have values and priorities, and that’s a good thing. Each of us is assigned value by the world, and for some of us that can be a good thing for our self esteem. But the problem with value is that value itself is comparative. We can say we have these certain “values” because we give more priority or weight to those things than we do to other, “less-valuable” things. We can say we have “value” in society, but by saying so are automatically implying (whether we mean to or not) that there are some who have less value than us. Indeed, some of us would say there are some who have no value at all.
How can we, in a godly way, base our own value on the valueless-ness of others? I don’t think God’s “Book of Life” will be ordered by who contributed most to the Kingdom; and no matter how difficult it has been to try to explain to people, I don’t think that Scripture teaches that we will receive any greater or lesser rewards than anyone else when we get to the Other Side – not rewards in the way we think of them, anyway.
Scripture tells us and we hear all our lives that God loves each of us for who he has made us to be, and for no other reason. But if we get to the Other Side and find that everything there is value-based (“So-and-so did this, but you didn’t, so he gets an extra special mansion and you don’t.”), wouldn’t that be completely against everything we’ve been told on this side? Should we not expect “heaven” to be at least something like what Jesus says things are supposed to be like here?
And yet, no matter how much we know these things, we still live and order our lives in a way that places priority on being valued by those around us, and not by God. What a different thing my life would be if I could remember every morning that I should allow my value today to come from God – and then recognize that in God’s eyes, I could not be any more valuable!
Any of you who have lots of time on your hands and want to read more about this, pick up a copy of Searching for God Knows What by Don Miller. Read it with a cup of coffee in one hand and a grain of sand in the other (guess you’ll need a bookstand) – the coffee because Miller is very postmodern in thought and writing style, and the salt because he sometimes goes off the deep end (in my opinion).
For any of you who have read this, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
