What Is Your True Value? Finding Worth in Everyday Life.

What does value mean to you?

Merriam-Webster defines it this way: "monetary worth," "importance."

Here's another way to phrase that question: does life have value? Does your life hold value?

You want to know that your life holds value, don’t you? We all do, don't we? You want to know that you are of worth, right? You desire to know that life has purpose, correct? That is what we all seek in this life, isn’t it? To find purpose, to know worth, and to have value.

“To add value to others, one must first value others.”

John C. Maxwell

Yes. We, as humans, want to be valued, we want to know that we have worth and, regardless of our position or heritage or individual disability or bank account, that our life is valuable and that we exist with purpose.

But, sometimes I wonder, does anyone’s life have any purpose if life is random? Does anyone’s life hold any value if nothing was ever paid for it?

“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”

Warren Buffet

Is life of any worth at all if we are no different than animals? Than plants? Than anything at all?

I wonder sometimes if life is valuable because the price paid for life was an ultimate sacrifice.

“No one has greater love [nor stronger commitment] than to lay down his own life for his friends.” John 15:13 (Amplified)

I wonder if everyone’s life has purpose because life was not just a random accident, a purposeless happenstance, a meaningless transition, but a purposeful, meaningful, and intelligent design. I wonder if life has worth not because of the value assigned to it by status, wealth, society, culture, or a governing body but because life is intrinsic.

If you think about it and follow the logical trail, if things were created by accident, and if all things were created from a dead thing, then that would mean that life truly does not hold any intrinsic value, that there is no unalienable rights, that life is meaningless and without purpose.

But that also brings up so many more questions. If it all came from a dead star, then where did that star come from? Who or what created that star?

If nothing can be created by nothing, then how could an entire universe be created from, well, nothing? And to what purpose does nothing created from nothing for no reason exist?

No wonder so many people are selfish, self-centered, angry, and joyless. How could there be joy if all is random meaninglessness?

Happiness is fleeting; it is a temporary emotion. Joy, however, as Rick Warren defined it: “Joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life, the quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be alright and the determined choice to praise God in every situation.”

Joy means “to be glad, to rejoice.” But what would there to be glad about or to rejoice over if we came from, well, pond scum, and if all is random, meaningless, and life truly holds no purpose but to “carpe diem,” seize the day, make the most of the present pleasures and give no thought to morality, ethics, right or wrong, or the future, and purpose was nothing but an abstract philosophy. Because, what is right or wrong, what is moral, what is ethical, if all is random, meaningless, and valueless.

You’ll hear these question more than once because I think they are important, intriguing, and I have yet to hear a reasonable, logical explanation.

What about if life was created by a designer and for a purpose. That would mean you are not random, I am not random, we are not random. It would mean life is not meaningless, but each of us have a purpose; life is valuable, no matter the perceived quality; and that there is such an absolute as morality, ethics, right and wrong, and if all this is true, then life does not just end, but it continues, because we were created for a reason, for a purpose, and that purpose is eternal.

That is hope; that is purposeful; that is valuable; that means you are important, valuable, and your life has worth.

“Your value doesn’t decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth.”

Zig Ziglar