Value

There's a regular at Kudu who needs help. I can tell, because of a few things:

1-she gets googlie-eyed whenever a guy gives her attention (including me).
2-she told me that her grades are really bad this (her first) term.
3-I've seen what she wears late at night. Some outfits are meant for partying and getting guys' attention.
4-she's seems to be going on dates with a guy who is WAY too old for her. Big brother instincts kicking in.

She came through with the too-old guy, and it got me talking with a co-worker. Where do we get our value?

Ultimately, because we are made in the image of God, and bought with the life and death of jesus of Nazareth. But how do I open those ideas to a non-christian without scaring him off with God talk? What, in words he can understand, give me (us) value?

Here were my posits:
1-because we can love (God and man)
2-because we can celebrate (aka rejoice, aka glorify, aka worship)
3-because we can create

Which are all part of the nature of God, I think. He loves perfectly, celebrates/rejoices in His completion (John 17, glorify), creates in His image.

But then, wise co-worker answered the questions herself.

She said, "I have value because I'm loved. When I'm driving recklessly down the road, I don't stop because I desire to keep my own life. I stop because of all the love others have for me, because of the pain I would cause them if I was hurt. I have value because I am loved."

Then she talked about her pastor and his kid. "Really, I can't understand love. That so-and-so would love his son, just a crying lump of fat, absolutely worthless, with a love that is deep and strong and true, I can't grasp that. But it's all we really want. It's what people without God live for."

Value because I'm loved. Bingo. Blew my mind. I just wanted to yell it out. I did, taking out the recycling. And several times mopping. Because I'm loved.

Ultimately, pride, my desire to have power and control, is all about me being my own person, outside of the will and action of everyone else. It's me alone. It's me loveless. Valueless.

But if I am loved, and I choose to walk in that love...
If I am chosen, and invited...
If I am loved...

Then, I am.

Just like God.

Because He, first and foremost, is loved. That is where his loving comes from. An eternal circling of love: the Father's of the Son, the Son's of the Spirit, the Spirit's of the Father. And then reverse them all. Trinity life, some call it. Others call it love. Life. Beauty. Joy. Completion. Fulfillment.

Value.