In Lagos, Nigeria, where I grew up, many who'd left home to make their way in the United States were welcomed back as heroes. I admit that I used to get caught up in some of that hero worship myself. These people seemed so beautiful and modern to me, so much better than I was. I felt unworthy next to them. Sometimes I questioned my own abilities.
But I always had something to fall back on, and that was the definition of worth that my parents taught me right from the very beginning. They would say, "Tunde, you are worth a lot, you are worth so much because you are the reflection of God, you are evidence of God's existence." They would tell me, "Your very being is attesting to the goodness of God."
I love in the Bible where it says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1. I like to think of that Word as God expressing Himself, speaking joyfully of the goodness and beauty and majesty of His nature. And then I think, Wow! In the beginning God expressed Himself in all this joy and all this intelligence and all this light—and I am part of that expression. God is speaking of me in His rejoicing. How, then, could I not believe that I am priceless?
No human circumstances can determine your worth or anyone else's. Only God does that. Only God can do that.
I remind myself often of my greatness—I even say out loud that I can't be denied the grace and glory that are inherent in me. That may sound boastful, but I actually think it takes the greatest humility and confidence in God to recognize just how much each of us is worth.
Everything in this world points to comparisons. It all urges us to judge ourselves on the basis of another person's progress—or failings. From a human perspective, there are always reasons to believe that we're not measuring up. But that is where humility comes in, the humility to know that your being is a testament to God's greatness and goodness. The humility to see that no human circumstances can determine your worth or anyone else's. Only God does that. Only God can do that.
And it's in those moments when I'm yielding to God, to God's view of me and my fellow man, that I'm awed by the pricelessness of each of God's ideas. What other vision of worth could be worth more than that?
