What Do You Value

 

My wife and I enjoy watching Antiques Roadshow. It’s fascinating the things people bring in to be appraised. I usually try to guess the value before the appraiser gives their opinion. I’m usually somewhere in the ballpark but occasionally I’m way off from the official appraisal. Sometimes it happens because I think an object is beautiful, but it has a low value because it’s common. On the other hand, I see objects that I think are pieces of junk that carry a high value because of their rarity. There is a disparity between the value that the object has for me and the value it has for someone else.

 

Jesus made some strong statements about what we should value. “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Lk 16:13). He went on to say, “What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight” (Lk 16:15). At another time, Jesus stated, “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it” (Mt 13:45-46).

 

Once in a while, it’s good for us to think about what we value. The relative value we place on the various areas of our lives, e.g. family, work/advancement, finances, worship/study, service, recreation, etc., will be different for each of us and will change throughout our lifetimes.  All of these are important and they each have a place in our lives. We can get an idea of how we value things by looking at our priorities. We will give our highest priority to that which we value the most. To give a simple example, if you skip going to church on Sunday to stay home and watch football on TV, there’s a pretty good chance that football/recreation has a higher value than worship. If you work 12 hours per day 7 days per week in order to get ahead and hardly interact with your family at all, it’s likely that you value your work more than your family. These are simple examples but they give you an idea of how to look at where you are right now.

 

The question is whether our values are in line with God’s values. It may sound overly familiar but a useful way of thinking is to say to yourself, “Is God happy with the choices I am making?”. If the answer is no, it’s time to think about what you need to change.