“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” – 1 Peter 4:8

Value. We long for it. Many of us search for it our whole lives and never secure it. We stumble and fall in the striving for it. We walk over the bodies of others we have diminished or crushed in pursuit of it. We crash into walls of despair when we don’t find it.

We suck up to those we think can confirm our value and use manipulation and self-protection when we perceive our value is threatened.

Even in the Church, where we are called to “walk humbly with our God”, our value becomes decreated by the ways of the world. Twisted and morphed. Confused and diminished.

Sit with this question for a while … “Where do I get my value from?”

Your work? Your athletic ability? Your ability to provide for your family? Your service at church? Where does your value come from?

Many men I know struggle with this. They want to “make an impact for God” and, when their perceived impact is limited to a small group or one-on-one encounters, their value takes a hit.

For too many years, I was there. Out of the infection of The Body that is the world, I had come to believe that my value was based upon what I did and the breadth of my reach. How many I was leading to Christ, were reading my blog, attending my small groups, and listening to my words. I was disappointed and disheartened when more men didn’t come to the events I was hosting, the class I was teaching, or the group I was speaking to.

Over time, I came to realize it wasn’t about the numbers and my perspective shifted. Maybe I was here for the one? The person who might not have heard of or know Jesus if I wasn’t there. This helped to move me from a more, more, more – bigger, bigger, bigger way of living to one more content with less. This view was a good mental assent toward value but as we know, mental assent to something isn’t enough to sustain life.

Until a thought, concept, or truth moves from our head to our heart, it’s not actionable with true conviction. If it remains in our minds alone, it is no more than something we strive for. To become the motivation that moves mountains, no matter what, it must move from our head to our heart.

Recently I was reading through the conversations and letters of Brother Lawrence as presented in The Practice of the Presence of God. Brother Lawrence was a French Catholic brother who served at a Discalced Carmelite monastery in the late 1600’s. His service was primarily in the kitchen and yet he was recognized and sought out as one who walked constantly with God.

His words brought clarity I had not consciously engaged before. And, at the same time, have illuminated my perspective on value in the Kingdom of God. I hadn’t realize it, but the truth of my value in the Kingdom of God had not yet truly moved from my head to my heart.

“That we ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.”

It is not what we do through which we receive our value. Our value is found in and through the love with which we do it.

Our impact is not how many followers we have; how many people come to our events or talks or listen to our podcasts, or how many show up at our church. And our impact and value are not aligned with even our desire to do something for Jesus. Our impact, our influence, and our value are measured in the currency of love. The love with which we perform what we do. Our love for God and our love for others.

As with most of the things in the Kingdom of God, this is upside down from the way of the world. Where the world measures impact in numbers, influence in dollars, and value in geographic reach. Impact, influence, and value in the Kingdom of God is measured in love.

Let that soak in a bit.

Impact, influence, and value in the Kingdom of God is measure in love.

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” – Matthew 22:36-40

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” – 1 Corinthians 13:1-3,13

Impact, influence, and value in the Kingdom of God is measure in love. When Jesus returns, may he find us loving well. 

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THE TOV HEART: God's Design for a Life Rooted in What Matters Most 

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It is my hope and prayer that you will be blessed and challenged to look for more with God - Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit. No matter how much you think you have, there is always MORE! Godspeed!

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