Value System Recalibration

The value we place on something or on someone is an elastic concept and variable. It will likely be different to the value placed on the same thing or person by someone else. It can also change with time.

Monetary value is even more elastic and subject to change. Just look at share prices for listed companies! In fact monetary value is completely arbitrary. Why is a house worth, say, a quarter of a million pounds or more? Especially when the price to physically build it will typically be much lower.

And as a society we can get our value systems completely and utterly wrong. As the corona virus pandemic brewed in England people (inappropriately) did hoard-buying in shops, clearing the shelves. A fun yet poignant social media post then went round saying:

In 2019 they told me to get good grades to secure a good job rather than end up stacking shelves.
In 2020 shelf-stackers are now in great demand!

Any job that needs doing is a job worth doing - and the person doing it should be honoured valued! Stop and think what the average pay is for a nurse - even a specially trained ICU nurse ... and now think how 'valuable' they are to us as a nation!

As followers of Jesus we should always be pinching ourselves and asking how much we have allowed our own value assessments to be set by the prevailing views of society around us?

Remember the blind beggar sitting near Jericho who called out repeatedly to Jesus. The crowd tried to shut him up - he was low in their value system. Yet Jesus stopped and called him, honouring him, affording him value.

Pray that we may learn to see value-wise as Jesus see.