How much are you worth? What’s your first
thought? I’m priceless? Cynics would say
we all have a price. Judas for thirty pieces of silver sold his beliefs and his
friend (not to mention savior), Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of soup,
politicians sell out for campaign endorsements, and we sell out to peer
pressure all the time. But if you had to stop, think about it, and put a price
tag on yourself, what is your worth?
I can’t say I ever gave much thought to it
until the other day. Here is what shook me up.
“I found him!” Angie told me. She was
obviously upset, but I had no idea who “he” was, so I asked. “The guy who gave
me AIDS! At least I think it was, because he was there for treatment the same
time I was.”
Empathizing is not the difficult part of my
job, but sometimes comprehending is. What would it be like A) to know you have
a deadly autoimmune disease, and B) to see the person who give it to you? I
honestly cannot begin to imagine what is going on in her heart, mind, body, or
soul… all I can do is love her, listen to her, and “mourn with those who mourn.”
“The woman at the desk saw that I recognized
him. She said ‘he’s been getting treatment for a while.’ But I know him! He
knows he has AIDS and what he’s doing, Steven. He buys a different girl every
night!!
“I talked to my case worker about it and she
said I should report him… it’s a crime. So, pray for me, cause I’m going down
to the police office to report him. I’m so scared, but someone has to do it so
no one else gets sick by him. Those girls have no idea; they were just like me.
They don’t know that for $10 they are being killed… a long, lonely, painful
death.”
$10… I heard very little after that. $10? All
of this, the AIDS, the prostitution… all of it is new to me, but $10?! If it
was $100 it wouldn’t make it any less sad and terrible. But you want to believe
that someone’s body, life, safety, health, and dignity are worth more than $10.
This really changed things for me, because
Angie and I have been talking for a long time. One thing that nearly always
comes up is her value. To be honest, it's a conversation I have with every
battered man and woman I meet. “Whatever you have been told or made to feel,
you have value! I value you, and more importantly, God values you, enough to
give His Son for you. You deserve better than the life that you’ve had.” I mean
these words, every fiber of my being is committed to this belief and to
convincing these precious children of God of this truth… and yet it often seems
to fall on deaf ears. The reason for this finally hit me. In her mind, Angie is
worth $10.
What would you have to go through to lower
your worth to that price? That, my brothers, is the true cost of sin. Satan
robs me of my worth and leaves me with the guilt and the pain. But, Christ
offers forgiveness, He makes me new, He makes me a joint heir, He exalts me
from my humble, miserable state, strengthens my weak knees and helps me to
stand.
It may take a long time for Angie to
experience that, for her to see herself as a precious, beloved, child of the
King, but that is why it’s important for someone to commit himself to giving as
much time as it takes. This is why it’s important for her to be greeted with
love rather than reproach, with a smile instead of a scowl, a prayer and
uplifting word in place of a curse, and the love of Christ instead of the
judgment of the self-righteous. It is a tall order for someone who has had the
luxury of being sheltered from this world must of his life. But Jesus didn’t
turn from the woman caught in adultery, he didn’t reject Levi, or Zacchaeus,
the tax collectors just because he had never done the things they did. He
connected with them in their suffering. He saw their worth, just as He sees
Angie’s. I can’t take her pain away but
I can sit with her in that pain. I can show her the love she shows me, and our
Lord shows us both.
“Because you are precious in my eyes, and
honored, and I love you…” (Isaiah 43:4 ESV).
