A nurse and a president walk into a building…

I was wearing my scrubs. I had been out around town visiting my home health patients, but I needed to do some research for one of my real estate clients. I parked my car in downtown Grand Rapids and walked inside the building. I rode the elevator to the 8^th floor. When I got off, the receptionist saw me walk off the elevator and walk towards the door. She buzzed me in. I told her the purpose of my visit. She told me to wait right there after turning her computers off. Then she walked through another set of doors that needed a special entry code. As I waited, I began to feel small. I felt at that moment like a very small fish in a very big pond. Have you felt that way?

After I was told, “we’ll have someone call you.”  I walked out musing to myself about the bigness of the world, the smallness of myself, and the awesomeness of my God. Sometimes it takes experiences of getting out of the world we are in and into a different world to feel humbled. I felt humbled.

God in His sovereignty, though, decided that the president of that company and the nurse that walked into that building in her scrubs had the same value. We are both made in God’s image and we both serve a purpose in the amazing tapestry of the world that we live in. We both have the same value in God’s eyes.

I think sometimes, we view our value through the eyes of someone else, through what the world values, or through the eyes of someone or something we hold in high esteem. The problem with gaining our value through these things is they change and we change. If our value is garnered by what we look like, we age or we gain weight, or we injure ourselves and acquire a scar in the most obvious of places. What happens to our value then?

If we value who we are based on the world’s standard of value, we will always measure up inadequate and always be striving for something that is unobtainable. If my value was based on how I felt in that office (which I must admit I did feel a bit out of place and a bit inadequate), then my value would always be changing. When I walked outside, I thanked the Lord that my value is based on something far greater than anything transient. My value is based on what Christ did for me on the cross, and when God the Father looks at me He sees the righteousness of Christ. How much more valuable could I feel?

If we gain our value based on who talks to us, or who invites us to their party, or invites us to eat lunch with them during school; then our value will be changing. If we are always living with the fear of missing out (FOMO), are we not basing our value on what others think of us rather than what God thinks of us.

A number of years ago, we were driving as a family on vacation at Christmas and as a good homeschool mom, I did not want to waste that valuable car time. I went to the library and got the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” (Dale Carnegie) on CD so we could listen to it while we drove. That book had some very practical suggestions. There are 6 that I have really tried to put into practice that are very biblical.

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile
3. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. …
5. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
6. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.

Ever since I listened to that series, I have worked on implementing these principles.  What has become more important to me is not what others think of me, but how can I make others feel genuinely loved and cared for. I love to notice people’s names on their name badges at the store and call them by name.

I have found that more often when I “Do unto others as I would have them do unto me” (Luke 6:31), I don’t usually think about myself and whether I am missing out on something or feel inferior in my surroundings. I am so busy trying to notice things about others that I don’t think to notice anything about myself. Don’t you love how God knows that about us? That when we sincerely seek to love others better than ourselves, we actually feel better about ourselves. When we realize that the world and life is not actually all about us, we are happier people. It sure does seem backwards, but God being the Creator of the world knew exactly how valuable it was to “deny ourselves.” (Mt. 16:24).

Go ahead and put these verses into practical use. Smile at someone at the store, call them by name, and tell them to have a nice day. It will certainly put a smile on your face too.