The Truth About Worth and Worthiness

It seems there’s a fine line between thinking yourself worthy of something and finding your worth in it. The example that leaps to my mind most forcefully is romantic relationships. I can have a healthy self-esteem that would lead me to believe myself worthy of a man’s affection, but it’s only a tee-tiny step away from allowing that affection or lack thereof to define my worth. It works with your professional life too. You can know that you’re completely qualified for a job – that you’re worthy of it – and then you can feel that you are more or less valuable as a human being depending on whether or not you get the job. It’s so subtle a difference, so sneaky and slick, that it can trip you up every time if you’re not aware.

The only thing it doesn’t work with is God’s love, which I would say is ironic except for that it’s not. It’s the only truth of any of the examples. All those other things – romance, marriage, professional advancement, kids, material things – can never define your worth no matter how worthy of them you are, no matter whether you get them or not. God’s love, on the other hand, is the only true determiner of your worth, we’ll never be worthy of it, and we’ll always have it. It doesn’t seem to make any sense, but it’s the truth.

I think that’s how you can recognize truth a lot of times. It’s the option that seems the most unlikely, the most paradoxical, the furthest out there, the one you would never have thought up on your own.