Value

Am I valuable?

This question radiates out of the heart of every person in the world, or at least every person I have ever met. It burns in us because we want so desperately to have worth. We want so desperately to be loved, to be worthy of love. In our society, we learn to find our worth through accomplishments: being a good wife, a good student, a good _____. When we feel that maybe we aren't the best or good enough, our worth is challenged. Too often we react by putting others down. We act like animals, picking on those weaker than us, because we know at least we are better than them at something. We want to feel important, powerful, valuable. In the end, we cheapen our own principles in order to feel better in that moment about who we are.

This morning during our Easter service, I was reminded of the freedom we have been given through Christ, freedom over sin and over death...freedom from finding our worth the world's way. We have this freedom because we can choose to look to God, rather than to ourselves or to others first, and when we look at our gracious and beautiful, our righteous and perfect, our holy and loving God, we realize we cannot compare. There is nothing bad about Him that we can point out to build ourselves up. We can only stand in awe, realizing that we are nothing. And then, in God's infinite grace, we are reminded that God has made us something of great value. We are valuable because we are His, because He has chosen to love us when we were unlovable. There is no competition there. Only surrender. There is no pride. Only gratitude. And in this beautiful place, we are free to marvel at His beauty and at the beauty He has assigned to every soul.

Am I valuable? Yes. And so are you.