Am I worthless? And if I am, who decides that? This question's been on my mind of worth. And it didn't start now. One of my favourite movies from when I was younger was Prince of Egypt. And there's a particular scene in the Prince of Egypt when Moses figures out his identity and he's running and he meets the Pharaoh of the time. And I put the scene right here.
And during this scene, what struck me was it spoke of was worth.
He says that they were only slaves. So why should he be upset? Pharaoh speaking to Moses. And then again, another great show that I watched, an animated show called Monster.
There's a particular scene when the main character is speaking to his fiancée-to-be. And she says this regarding patients at the hospital.
Now you can imagine, why would somebody view other human beings that way? Is worth just attached to status? Money, wealth, success, fame? What makes someone valuable? Is someone valuable because of the people around them? Or is value attached to how intelligent someone is, their knowledge, their wisdom? What makes someone valuable? And that's what I'm going to touch on in this article.
So this is Young People, Please Calm Down. I'm Michael Uzor. And I'm very excited to be speaking to you all today about the topic of Am I Worthless? To get to the bottom of this question, I'm going to be showing historical, personal, contemporary, and biblical examples.
So I can give you a well-rounded answer to this question. The biggest way that we can see humanity's failure to understand worth is through slavery.
Now slavery, the transatlantic slave trade started in the 1500s and it ended in the 1800s, late 1800s. And during this time, there was a great disrespect to the Africans and the African continent. Now, ignoring the fact that our leaders were selling us away, the use of scripture to justify the destruction and mental and physical slavery of the Africans during that time was a show of complete and utter disrespect towards mankind's worth. And the sad thing is that the Bible was used to justify it.
Like I just said, it was used to bring it down. It was used to enforce and many scriptures were taken out of context to show that it was okay for the Europeans to dominate the Africans. And as a result, this caused a great rift in not only the Christian faith, but also the Africans today who have completely shunned away from the Christian religion because of the very fact that their ancestors suffered at the hands of the Europeans who they believe brought them Christianity.
From research, I know that Christianity or the Christian faith did not start in Europe. It started in the land of the Hebrews in the Middle East. However, due to the spread among the Gentiles, as shown in scripture, and I'll put them up here:
Acts 13:47
"For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth."
Europeans dominated with the Christian faith and God blessed them mightily.
However, as you can see that when one takes away the humanity from another, it can lead to disastrous results like persecution, wars, famine, and forced slavery. There was many people who fought against slavery. They called them the abolitionists.
There's people in Britain like William Wilberforce.
There was Thomas Clarkson.
And John Wesley as well was one of the men who pushed for the stop of slave trading in Europe.
A great phrase was brought at the time called Am I not a man and a brother?
And that was used to push the idea that slavery was wrong. And it's very true. If we're all human with blood, why then does what adorns us, the outside layer, like our skin colour, our wealth, the money we have, the friends we have, the connections, then determine our worth in the eyes of others. In contemporary society, we see the social media and the huge comparisons made through those who usually show the best part of their lives.
This can cause worth issues, self-worth issues, because by looking at this, we can see that clearly we aren't living life at the fullest like these people are on social media. And it always seems as if everyone is just having a great time on social media. And it doesn't mean we demonize good times. But when that's all one sees, there's a tendency for the viewer to compare their life with those on the screen, those on television. And the real truth is that the people actually on social media represent a small fragment amount of people in the world. And then again, with the type of jobs we have, the house we live in, how much we know about a particular subject, all of these things can then become almost an identity for us.
And I've written a few books, and the majority of my books focus on the idea and theme of identity and how one's identity can be skewed and manipulated in order to fool others into believing that they are someone of worth. But what happens when we don't have these things? Who are we then? Who are we when the things that we've attached so much of ourselves to are not there? Imagine losing everything, like Job in scripture. He lost all his property, his health, his children, family, his respect:
Job 1:20
"Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."
Job 19:18
"Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me."
I mean, he even lost his health, like I said. I mean, someone with their health can start again, but he couldn't even have the chance to start again. So who then gave him worth? Who then could say he was someone of worth? Satan himself even said to God that if you take away everything that made him and everything that he gifted him, he won't serve you anymore.
So clearly, Satan was testing man's attachment to objects that God has created for their worth. Of course, we know the story. Job did not relinquish his desire and faith in God.
He didn't relinquish it. But it's quite a telling story and a telling truth of how the world sees us today. Mankind in totality.
Personally, self-worth is a thing I battled with when looking at what I've achieved over the years. There's a tendency to want more and more and more. I'm feeling if I don't have more, I am not successful. But what really defines success for me? And there's a particular example when I would get into quite depressing bouts with myself and deep introspections about what my worth was. What made me someone liable for respect and to be valued? Was it what I had? What was it really? What really made me who I am inside? What really helped me was Galatians 3 verse 28 where it says:
"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all in Christ Jesus."
So what's that saying is that in Christ Jesus, we are seen as perfect, valuable, people of worth.
And when I started to understand that and get to the deep knowledge of these things, it helped me greatly. So what then makes someone filled with worth? What makes somebody valuable? And some might say, does that mean that if I'm not in Christ Jesus, I have no value? Of course not. As it's John 3:16: "For God so loved the world."
God loves everybody. Then the following verse says, "And whosoever shall believe in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." So he loves you and he desires for you not to perish. That's why he wants you to believe in him. So what's the cure then? What leads us to having self-worth? Some might say it's not an overnight thing, as I believe it is when one has had the encounter with God himself, the Son of God in the flesh. As it says in Matthew chapter 10 verse 31: "Fear you not therefore, you have more value than many sparrows."
That's what Jesus says. And then again, in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1 to verse 10, it says:
"And you he made alive, who are dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, that spirit that walketh now in the children of disobedience, Among whom also we all had our conversation in time past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace are ye saved, and hath raised us up together to make us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith, that are not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast."
And this is my favourite verse in this chapter, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should work in them." The word workmanship, actually translates to poiema, which also translates to masterpiece or poem. So we are God's masterpiece.
We are valuable, in that even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, and many was not our fault, because of the sins of the first Adam, God, in his great mercy and love, gave his own Son as a sacrifice on the cross for our sins. How much more loving is that for a friend to die for his friend. How beautiful is the word of God. I am Michael Uzor. This is Young People. Please calm down. Like, comment, share with your friends. Let me know what you think of this article. I'll see you on the next one. Thank you.
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