Don't Leave an Awful Hole
“So, what was the score? Did my team win?”
I glanced nervously at my ten-year-old daughter as she stared back expectantly, her question lingering in the air. I looked back at the app on my phone. The app I had once found so convenient for its updates on soccer practices and live streaming of games had now become a source of frustration. Why?
Because this was the first game my daughter hadn’t been able to play due to an injury. And it was the first game her team had won. The connection would not go unnoticed by her despite my reassurances, as she had already previously declared this morning that if her team did win it was obviously because she wasn’t playing.
“Maddie, these are only scrimmages,” I reasoned, “not real games, just scrimmages to keep your skills sharp during the offseason. Scores don’t matter.”
But to her, I knew it did. To her, this was a reflection of how well she played. The fact that she was one of their top defenders would not be relevant now because her entire sense of self-worth was hanging on the delicate thread of this one detail. I sighed at the fact that she was so young and already holding herself to these standards.
This caused me to reflect on how frequently we establish our worth on the values of the world. We often defer to worldly requirements as a means for finding satisfaction, forgetting that nothing we attain here will ever bring us true joy. In our desire to find satisfaction, we forget our first love.
WHAT IS YOUR WORTH?
What drives this? Surely it cannot be as simple as a lack of relationship with God. I have seen plenty a preacher, teacher, and layperson fall victim to this way of thinking. No, it appears we are still in a crisis of not knowing our worth to the Lord.
Consider the tale of George Bailey from the classic film It’s a Wonderful Life. At the start of the story, we witness the unraveling of George’s life and his contemplation of suicide. We are then transported back to the early childhood of George and one his first “ripple effects” from saving his younger brother’s life. As the film progresses, we see that George’s brother goes on to save many soldiers in the war, so just that one act by George set into motion a greater plan for deliverance of others. We are then shown the many other instances in which George’s absence from the picture makes a significant difference, for the worse, in the lives of those whom he knows and loves.
George had originally planned to take his own life because he perceived himself to be a failure. This was a man who had given up on all his dreams so that he might be a blessing to others. By the world’s standards, this was considered a failure. This is conveyed in the scene in which the villainous Mr. Potter tells George that he is “worth more dead than alive.”
By contrast, George’s guardian angel Clarence says the following: “Each man's life touches so many other lives, and when he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?"
To the world, George is worth nothing. To the Lord, however, he is “worth more than many sparrows” (Matt. 10:31). This is evident not just in the sense that God had a purpose behind George’s life to serve others, but also at the end of the story where we watch the whole town come together to save him from jail. God had not forgotten George—just like he knew the number of hairs on his head, God knew George’s worth because he was the one who made him.
WHERE CAN YOU FIND WORTH?
In today’s culture we are subject to finding our worth outside of Christ at every turn. Even if we wish to escape it, we’re always just one social media post, promotion, or some other achievement away from abandoning our peace and identity in the one who saved us.
We compare ourselves with everyone, worry over who is liking our posts, obsess over our image, embellish how great our lives are, and prize the label of “perfectionist” when it is given to us. There will always be more money, more clothes, more fast cars, and more status to attain.
We chase after these things thinking we will find the fulfillment and approval we are so desperately seeking. Here are just some indications that you are seeking your worth in the world versus the Lord:
You have a constant need to share all the things that paint you in a great light, regardless of whether it is appropriate for the public to see.
You find a way to steer most conversations back to yourself.
You are secretly competitive with those around you.
You are more concerned with how you looked or performed versus the influence you had.
DECLARED WORTHY
The truth is we all, believers and unbelievers alike, do the above-mentioned things. But as followers of Jesus, we are called to be different—we are called to be “the light.” To combat this self-glorifying age and re-establish our true value, we must look to what Scripture says about our worth to the Lord.
In 1 Peter 2:9 we are told, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” We are valued by God because he chose us.
The psalmist goes even further in declaring,
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (Ps. 139:13–16).
Knowing that the Lord carefully knitted you together in the womb, that nothing was hidden from him as to who you were going to be, speaks volumes about how much you’re worth to him.
LOVELY BECAUSE HE LOVES US
Matthew 6:25–34 says, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
Here Jesus is very clear that it is much more than what you eat, what you wear, which car you drive, and how much wealth you have.
Paul expresses in Philippians that he has learned to be content in “whatever circumstances” (Phil. 4:11–12). Whether this means going hungry or being filled, enjoying prosperity or living by humble means, the message is clear: True joy and peace is not attained by what you have or don’t have, but by knowing how much you mean to the Lord.
The beauty of the Gospel is that it shines the light on what we’re worth because of how much we are loved by God.
So much that he gave his only son so that we might be saved. So much that the blood of Christ had to be shed. So much that while we were still sinners, Christ looked at us and said, “Those ones. They are the ones I want.”
When we finally come to understand the value of our own souls and this sacrifice, it truly is a wonderful life.
Jessica Engle is a West-coast transplant living in northern Virginia with her daughter, Madison. Her day job is in human resources. She is a passionate and avid blogger at Addison's Walk, where she writes to spread the Gospel. She's privileged to serve as a leader in the Celebrate Recovery program for her local church.