Most of us are not interested in spending money on something that is broken. We are reluctant to buy a used car until we have done a thorough check with Carfax to ensure ourselves that we are not getting stuck with someone else’s junk. The words “valuable” and “broken” do not seem to fit in the same sentence, unless you are looking at things from God’s paradigm.

Our lives have great value to God. In Mark 8:36, Jesus declared: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” The Lord indicates here that our souls are worth more than the entire world. Think about the price that God paid in order for our soul to be saved: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

But while our lives in God’s eyes are valuable, they are only of practical use to God when broken. The truth is, God delights in and uses broken things. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:17). “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit” (Psalm 34:18).

When traveling, I purchase most things with a credit card, but I also make sure that I have a little bit of cash on me for those incidentals along the way. In fact, it is kind of nice to have a twenty dollar bill or two in my pocket. But while that twenty dollar bill has value, it is not always practically useful. It will not buy a can of soda from a vending machine, or serve me well at a laundromat or car wash. For that reason, I keep the ashtray of my car filled with quarters. A twenty dollar bill and eighty quarters have the same value, but the eighty quarters can be used to buy just about anything, whereas the twenty dollar bill is limited in its usefulness. Read more »