Worth and Value

A few months ago, I found a very curious ceramic pot at the thrift store. The glaze looked old. The design was unique. I wasn’t exactly sure of the pot’s purpose. But I liked it. And I thought that it was worth the 50 cents that it cost.

Being the dreamer that I am, I hoped that the pot was old—maybe from a Native American tribe—and that it was used for something special. So I took it to Antiques Roadshow two weeks ago to find out. What I found out was that the pot was likely mass produced for a roadside stand in Mexico and sold as a tourist trinket. Furthermore, the pot is known as a puzzle pot because it is not clear exactly where liquid will come out when the pot is poured. One appraiser said that it was worth around $25. Another said that it might be worth double what I paid for it, so, $1.

While this information wasn’t what I wanted to hear, it proved exactly what I’d been thinking before attending Roadshow: An item is worth only as much as someone is willing to pay for it. The first appraiser felt like I did about the pot. It peaked his curiosity. It is unique. It looks neat. It is not something that you see every day. He turned it over in his hands quite a few times and kept looking back at it. He liked it. He would have been willing to pay $25 for the pot and to display it in his home. The second appraiser, though, saw it as a piece of junk. He quickly looked at it and gave it back to me. He wouldn’t have been willing to give his pocket change for it. Its value, then, lay not in what the pot actually was but in how it was viewed. Its value lay in the response that it evoked and the feelings that it caused to surface…

I grew up in a theological tradition that teaches that, “We are sinners but saved by grace.” For various reasons, this translated into my life as a deep hatred of myself and a belief that I was bad. Even so, I was supposed to strive to be more and more like Christ, so I did, yet since I, in my humanness, would always fail, I simply determined that I was a failure. I excelled in school and in most things that I set my mind to, yet nothing I did was ever good enough. I was worthless and my self-worth was zero.

Then I started pastoral counseling. Over the course of many long and hard months, my counselor began to give me new language and help me reframe my beliefs. I remember weeping as I began to understand that I am a person of worth and value and that I deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Yes, I am a sinner who misses the mark all the time. Yes, I am saved by grace. But I am God’s child—I am God’s creation—and when God created God’s creation, God called it good. In fact, God loved God’s creation so much that Jesus came to live with and die for us—because we were worth it--because God values relationship, redemption, equality, dignity of human life, respect, and love enough to sacrifice everything for us…

Friends: You are God’s creation, too, and you were called good. Yes, you are sinners who frequently miss the mark. Yet you are saved by a grace that loves you and deems you worthy enough to live for and die for you—and call you friend. You were worth it. You are worth it. And God values you and your desires for light, love, peace, hope, joy, forgiveness, redemption, and resurrection enough to be in relationship with you.

I’d say that this news of worth and value is better than any news that Roadshow or anyone else could ever provide!