There it was – the object of my dreams, the subject of countless imaginations, the possession of which would surely initiate a lifetime of ceaseless awe – covered in a fine layer of dust. Maybe it was because I didn’t own one yet, and my friend was too dumb to appreciate its value. But on the way to his house he played up its awesomeness pretty well. “Is it cool?!!” I asked with wide-eyed anticipation. “Oh yeah. Totally.” Not fully satisfied I then asked, “What about that game that comes with it… what about it?!!” He responded in a reassuring tone, “Yup. Totally.” He was telling me what I wanted to hear, but that wasn’t enough. I didn’t want simple assurance that the new videogame system was cool – I wanted to know it was life changing. I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed when I saw dusty cables and game cartridges recklessly strewn around his living room floor.
“That guy’s crazy” I thought, “When I get one I am going to take good care of it.” But even with that vow the image of my friend’s dusty Sega Genesis was permanently emblazoned on my mind. No matter how I tried, I could never feel the same way about that system again. Maybe it was because the value my friend imputed to his Sega Genesis somehow affected my perceived value. Even though the glossy black casing of my Genesis later on was kept perfectly shiny, his dusty Genesis challenged its worth to me. My friend really didn’t value his Genesis at all, and he seemed to get more out of playing up its value to me than actually playing it. To him, the system’s only real worth was as a leveraging tool – a meaningless possession used to make him look better off in my eyes.
Later on in school I saw this same pattern in other things, and I came to the conclusion that junior high was a small scale version of the greater world. It was amazing – if one of the popular kids decided that someone or something was cool, then it was. Hence the silliest of trends, clothing styles, and individuals would rise and fall in ‘demand’ based on the imputed value of a small elite group. Everyone outside of that group would spend all of their energy trying to obtain what was deemed to have ‘worth’ – only for the standard to change again. But the real secret was that even that group didn’t truly value what they said had worth! Like my friend’s dusty Genesis – the only value the elite derived from their goods was the value it gave them in the eyes of others.
There has never been anyone more ‘elite’ than King Solomon, and he gave an honest assessment of the intrinsic value of ‘goods’ saying, “When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?” –Ecclesiastes 5:11 To elite, the only value of a good is in the public’s demand for its consumption. The possession of the good amounts to the value it gives in bragging rights, or in the value of saying, “I own it.” Those outside of the elite class are constantly striving for what they believe has value, not realizing that the act of their striving is actually giving the elite value. This all begs the question, from a broader perspective, what really has value?
The Apostle Paul counseled his spiritual son Timothy, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” -1 Timothy 6:6 Like a Christmas gift or a wedding ring, or even a thank-you card, material things are only as valuable as the meaning they carry. Material things gain true value when they represent something more than the object itself, especially when that something is Love. The real substance that gives material things worth is God’s Love, which He delights to give His children through the Holy Spirit. But as good as a Christmas gift, wedding ring, or thank-you card may be – you really don’t need them if you have the relationship that they represent. That’s the kind of wealth Solomon spoke of in Proverbs 10:22, “The blessing of the LORD, it makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.”
