Are You Worth A Million?

An interesting drama is unfolding in Laurens County, Georgia, the place Andrea and I fondly called home most of the 90’s. I will give you a brief description followed by some thoughts.

Back in August 2007, a sheriff’s deputy pulled to the right side of road and began to make a left U-turn. As he pulled back onto the road toward a 900 degree angle, a motorcyclist traveling in the same direction t-boned the sheriff’s cruiser at such a rate of speed that the impact flipped the car over on its side. The deputy was seriously injured and is still in the process of physical recovery. The motorcyclist was fatally injured.

The motorcyclist’s widow provides the interesting twist to the story. She is suing
the county, the sheriff’s department, the sheriff, and the deputy for what she calls (notice I am quoting here) “the full value of the life of her husband.” What price tag could you put on a man’s life? Well, apparently he was worth a cool $1,000,000 to her – that is the amount she is seeking.

I have neither the desire nor responsibility to determine the merits of this case. I have no idea who should or should not have been doing what, where, and how. What intrigues me is placing a monetary value on the life of a human being.

While not addressing the monetary value of one’s earthly existence, Jesus did rhetorically ask about the value of the human soul.

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Matthew 16:25-26

One doesn’t need a PhD in economics to realize the the value of something is determined by what is exchanged for it. If you don’t believe me, try selling a house! It doesn’t matter what the appraiser says the house is worth, it is only worth what the seller can get for it. Aprraisals don’t pay power bills and buy groceries.

Who’s to say how much one’s time here on earth is worth, but we can easily determine the value of the human soul. Jesus exchanged His life for our soul. That makes our soul the most valuable commodity known to man.

You are so valuable to God that He gave His Son’s life in exchange for you. Never believe the devil’s lie that you don’t matter or that you are insignificant. You are worth far more than a mil to God. Our lives have been redeemed, let’s rise above the common and ordinary and live as the priceless treasures that we are.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. – 1Peter 2:9-10