In Part I, I briefly discussed how I believe that one of the most central questions to the human existence is “Am I worth something?” Almost every sin pattern I can think of has its origins in a process of answering this question apart from God. If we were confident in our worth and identity as God declares it, we would no longer feel the need to serve false gods or take advantage of others to prove it to ourselves. This makes an affirmative answer to our soul’s nagging question an absolute necessity for obeying something as radical as “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
I hope you’re now asking, “Well, what does God declare my worth to be, and how do I go about internalizing this truth to the point where I will live it out on a consistent basis?” because those are questions that God absolutely longs to answer for you, and he is faithful to do just that if you keep asking. I’m only in the very beginning stages of hearing God’s answer to these myself, but I want to share with you the little I know in hopes that God might reveal something new to you through it.
To start I want to zoom out a bit. I’m going to talk in somewhat unemotional terms about the most emotional topic in the world. Because I want you to be grounded in the fundamental assertions of the Christian faith, before moving on to some of the more personal issues.
I was an economics major, so humor me here. I have a basic Econ 101 question for you:
What determines the worth of an object?
If an answer doesn’t leap to the front of your mind, I want you to think on this one until you ar
rive at an answer you’re at least somewhat confident about…
…Do you have it yet?…
…Everything from a Kit-Kat to a Ferrari…
…How do you know what it’s worth?…
OK, time’s up. Don’t move on from this point until you have an answer.
Chances are, if there were numbers that came to mind for the Kit-Kat and Ferrari, it’s because you’ve seen their price tags, and it seems safe to say that something is roughly worth what’s on the price tag. But what if nobody was willing to pay that price?
What if I put a $10,000 price tag on the Kit-Kat?
Would it still be worth that amount?
Most people would say “no”. And so a pretty good Economics 101 answer to the question (especially if you buy into the whole capitalism thing) would be: An item is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
Now, that’s a good starting point, but that definition might feel incomplete to you because you were once a second grader. What I mean is this: most of us, when we were still quite young, watched some really slick trades go down. And in second grade, I was the primary instigator of this kind of thing. When Power Ranger cards were all the rage, I was the first one to seize an opportunity. I was that kid who preyed upon that girl who just learned that Power Ranger cards existed, bought a pack at the grocery store with her mom last night, and as luck would have it, happened upon an ultra-rare green ranger foil card.
Knowing full well this girl was vulnerable to all kinds of manipulation, I would offer her a “shiny new” commonplace pink ranger card; the girl’s hero. I would convince her the pink ranger is much prettier and that foil cards were actually worth less because the foil distorted the image. The girl would be co
mpletely swayed by my cunning words, and in no time my mom was getting a call from her mom demanding that I trade back the cards because her daughter had just realized (via a more informed trader or some pesky trading card magazine) that she was royally ripped off in the latest of my shenanigans.
The girl was willing to pay a foil green ranger card for a common pink ranger card. Does that mean my pink ranger card was worth it? Not really. If it were, I would have been spared countless incredibly awkward second grade reconciliation conversations for all the people I was “sorry” for having ripped off.
“So sorry for making your daughter happy by giving her a card of her personal hero, Mrs. Johnson. And thanks for stealing her joy from her. You’re a great parent.”
I was a real annoying second grader.
As much as I hate to admit it, our definition needs some amending in light of my childhood trauma. Perhaps an item’s worth is not determined by what someone will pay for it, but rather what a well-informed consumer will pay for it. This is a pretty good definition 2.0.
The people reading the magazines with the Power Ranger card price lists in the back are in a far better place to determine the worth of a card than the clueless girl who trades with her feelings. Sure, maybe the Pink Ranger was worth the trade to her in the moment, but had she simply known that countless other traders would be willing to offer her eight different pink ranger cards for the same price, she would have quickly changed her mind about how much her card was worth.
Although our new definition satisfies most critical lenses, I want to cover all my bases here. There’s still one problem with this definition:
Even the well-informed consumers disagree.
It’s the reason that stock exchanges exist. Even people who spend their entire lives analyzing industries disagree on what a share of a company is worth. Only a perfectly informed market observer with sound analytical skills and judgment could accurately determine worth. And no such human exists.
So maybe there’s no hope for ever getting a concrete answer to this kind of thing (this was essentially the case in barter economies). However, in the absence of strict laissez-faire economics, there is a way we can know absolutely what something is worth. If you want a quick illustration, reach into your pocket and pull out a $20 bill. What is it worth? It might seem like a silly question. In terms of the rarity and cost of materials used to make it, it’s actually worth less than your penny. But it is in fact worth exactly $20, because the government says so. And they’re the authority. They made the bill and they run the show, so they can determine its worth, even if you want to disagree.
So then, we have two options for who can rightfully determine worth:
1) The perfectly informed observer with perfect judgment, or
2) The authority who created the market and makes the rules.
As a human being, you only have two options for who actually has authority to set your worth. And your parents, your spouse, your boss, or the cool crowd don’t fit the bill, regardless of how well-informed or authoritative they may seem. The only person who could actually determine your worth would have to either be someone with perfect information about you and about the world and who is perfect in his/her judgments (fixing your worth at the price that said person would pay for you), or the entity who created you and authoritatively set your worth upon your creation. The incredible thing is that the Christian faith is the only worldview I know of that professes a God who perfectly fulfills both roles.
His name is Yahweh.
He crafted the universe and he paid a price for you. He paid his innocent, beloved son hanging on a cross, gasping for air, that you might be free. I dare you to think of a higher price he could have paid; something that would have cost him more. He declared in the most striking way possible that you’reworth more than anything to Him.
- This is the price He paid for you. That is how much you’re worth.
The only one who can rightfully determine your worth showed you your worth in the greatest singular event in human history. You were worth every lash, every thorn, every nail, and every gasp for air. And if you want to disagree, you can try, but you just don’t have that authority. Only He does. And what he declared about you at Calvary ought to be quite clear…
Imagine if your mind instantly went to the cross every time you find yourself wondering how much you’re worth. God, in his grace, gave you an intensely graphic scene so that you could remember. And we take communion to give thanks to Him for his grace in giving us the affirmation that our soul hungers for more than anything, at great cost to himself.
The problem is, I find myself questioning my worth far more often than I partake in the bread and the cup.
So I am forever in the process of training my mind to remember his great demonstration for me. The answer to every question about my worth can be found in the cross of Jesus Christ. May we all live as sons and daughters who profoundly understand the ransom that was paid for them.
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Mikey! I loved everything about this post. Seriously son. This is true basic economics, and yet super powerful. You said so eloquently what so many people need to hear… you’re worth it… want proof?… it’s on the cross… econ explains it.
So good. I love your mind Mikey.
I love how clear and sequential this is. The idea of God as the perfectly informed authority is really powerful.
I was having a discussion about the economics of personal value with dave g. and i think that one of the problems people run into when thinking about their worth is that as familiar as we all are with the capitalistic system, we are also tuned into utilitarian views. If you buy something and it turns out to be broken, you return it for a full refund, because if it doesn’t perform, it’s worthless. I know I personally can feel this way about myself a lot, and when we don’t know God’s plans or how we’re being used, we can feel like we don’t have a purpose, and thus no value. We may think “Sure God paid a lot for me, but I’m not living up to the ‘expected’ value, so I’m not ‘really’ valuable.” This is a tricky thing, but I think focusing on God’s perfect knowledge and authority is a good way to remind oneself that He knows what He’s doing.
In programming, the basic unit of action is a “function” or “subroutine.” A function has the following syntax:
{Return Value} {Name} {Parameters}
So a line of code to use a function might look like this:
Result = ThisFunction(Parameters)
So let’s say we create a function called “Worth.” Admittedly it’s a pretty complex function. The problem is that at least one parameter needs to ask the question: “to whom?” Because that to that girl, the worth of those two cards was approximately equivalent, while to you it wasn’t.
And another parameter is: “When?” Because that same pink ranger card is probably worth very little to her now.
One might replace that parameter with: “Under what conditions?” Because even that girl would have spurned any card at all if she was hanging off a cliff.
So the Worth function declaration looks like:
Worth(Object, To Whom, Conditions)
Interesting things happen using this function. For instance let’s try it in this scenario:
Value = Worth(Pink Ranger Card, God, Now)
I’m going to take a wild guess and say that Value is darn near zero. To God, it’s a piece of paper. On the other hand, if
Value = Worth(Girl Having Pink Ranger Card, God, Then)
The value will be much higher. And,
Worth(Pink Ranger Card, Girl, Then)=Worth(Green Ranger Card, Girl, Then)
BUT,
Worth (Pink Ranger Card, Girl, Then) !=Worth(Pink Ranger Card, Girl, Now)
By the way, “!=” means “not equal.”
I think that simplifies the question of worth a great deal by resuming the assumption that objects have objective worth. And so, while I agree that often the most useful function call is:
Value=Worth(Object, Informed Customer, Now)
and
Value=Worth(Object, Me, Now)
and
Value=Worth(Object, God, Now)
that doesn’t mean that any one of those three values is more valid than any other. More informed, perhaps, but not more valid.
Just something to mull around. I know all this is beside the point, but still thought it might be worth considering.
Value=Worth(This Conversation,You, Now)
Value=?
Dan