The “Usefulness” Trap of Modern Culture
We live in an age of consumerism and industrialization where things are made efficiently and disregarded the minute they break or are no longer useful. Their goodness to us, their value, is directly related to their usefulness for our pleasure or purposes. My fear is that we don’t only treat inanimate objects like this, but also people. When everything in our lives is defined by its usefulness for us, we tend to treat others in a similar manner. Friendships and relationships are foundationally transactional and evaluated based upon how they make us feel. I’ve heard many people say: I’ve moved on from that friendship because they were no longer “good for me.” The minute someone is no longer useful or providing the pleasure they once did, we move on. This is how society tends to treat people as well. It seems all too common that to a company you are only as good as your usefulness, or to a corporation you are only as good as your usefulness.
Related: Doubting the Goodness of God
We must stop and ponder, if this is how we think about things and people, what kind of thoughts will we have for ourselves? What fundamental belief will we have for ourselves if we treat everything and everyone around us as useful? We are only as valuable as we are useful.
How Performance-Based Value Affects Our Self-Worth
The ramifications for this belief are sobering. You are only as good as your performance, you are only as good as your ability to please, you are only as good as your desirableness for someone else, you are only as good as your ability to satisfy them. Thus, in search of our value we become consumed with striving to be useful to society or others. But deep down, we don’t actually believe this. We are not only as good as our usefulness, because something inside of us says our value is not based on our usefulness. The belief seems to go against the grain of how we actually live and long to think of ourselves.
Culture says you are useful, but God says you are loved.
The difference between being useful and being loved cannot be overstated. Every human being is born with the desire to be fully known and fully loved simply for who they are. What makes this being known and loved significant is who is declaring the value. Society has its own goals, and sadly they are not often for your benefit. Most of the time society is built upon people, and many of those people have the goal of personal gain at others expense. But God declares that you are known and loved, so why is that fundamentally different?
The Foundation of Our Value: Understanding God’s Goodness
One of the characteristics about God is that He is good. When the rich young man approaches Jesus in Matthew chapter 19, He asks what good deeds he must do to have eternal life. And Jesus responds in part by saying there is only “one who is good” (v17). This is God. God’s goodness can be seen in two aspects.
God’s Moral Perfection
First, God is morally perfect. We can think of goodness in a moral sense of what is right being good, and wrong being bad. In Psalms 92:15, the psalmist declares there is no unrighteousness in God. Thus, God is perfectly good and righteous.
God’s Unfailing Love
Second, God’s goodness is deeply intertwined with his love. In Psalm 106 we read,
“Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!”
In Romans 5:8 we read of God’s demonstration of his love and goodness in that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
The Ultimate Proof: Your Value Declared at the Cross
Valued in Creation (“Very Good”)
God, the ultimate standard of goodness, who is good himself, created humanity and called it “very good” in Genesis 1:31. God declaring it good meant it was all right in the world to have humans in perfect relationship with Him in the garden. Yet, the fall of mankind in Genesis chapter 3 and the resulting devastation across creation and the sinfulness of humanity shattered this. But God, in his goodness, sent His one and only son to die on the cross and pay the penalty for our sin. The restoring of the relationship that was broken by sin is good, stemming from the ultimate source and standard of goodness, God himself. Your value is seen in Christ’s death on the cross for you. God was willing to send Jesus to die so that the relationship that was broken by sin could be restored. Second, God’s goodness, meaning morally perfect, means he cannot lie. And we read that God loves us. John 15:9 says “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.”
More from Cru: Five Bible Characters that Went from Bad to Good
Redeemed by Christ’s Sacrifice
Simply put, when God declared your value by sending Jesus on the cross, it was out of his goodness and for your good, and when God says he loves you, he does not lie. When he says you are his masterpiece (Eph 2:10), he speaks the truth. We can trust God because he is good. He does not have hidden motives and is upfront and clear in his revelation to you.
The Christian story says you are valuable because God created you and has declared your value with Jesus’ death and resurrection. And because of your value and God’s love, He chooses to use you on earth and invites you to redeem the broken world and share the Gospel with others. So you are useful, but the foundation is you have value and you are loved. Culture distorts this truth and flips it, you are valued because you are useful. That’s false. God’s goodness is the foundation to trust.
How to Live in Your True Identity
Why does this matter? We tend to live our lives trying to prove our value to others around us. Instead, rest in your true value and God’s love for you. That is the only secure and satisfying foundation.
