The value and dignity of the human person.

Do you ever struggle with self-image, identity, and a sense of dignity about who you are as a person?  We live in a culture in which we are always “sizing each other up.”  Here’s another quote for you from The Pastor as Minor Poet.

            Pastor’s never trust the self-image of anyone.  That’s because most people construct their identities from an assortment of borrowed images.  The typical American today strives to be as attractive as the models on the fashion magazine covers, as successful in work as Bill Gates, as sensitive a spouse and parent as Ward and June Cleaver, and as death-defyingly healthy as Lance Armstrong – all while maintaining the inner peace of the Dalai Lama.  The fact that these images are often in conflict with each other creates tension within the heart of the individual, who tries desperately to meet all of their demands. 

            Typically the pastor is the only influence holding to the belief that life is a holy creation that can be rightly known only in light of the image of God.  As the old confession of faith states, “our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”  We were marked by God, for God, and the holiness of this image goes to the heart of our identity and mission in life.

Do you think of yourself often as a unique person, created by God, marked by God, made for God, and that you have value for who He has made you to be, without regard to how you “size up” to others?  In listening to a lecture by Dallas Willard today I was struck by his definition of the word “dignity”.  He defines it as “worth that has no substitute.”  He goes on to say that most things have been given a value.  If I want a cheese burger and you have one that you are willing to trade me for $3.00 then we know the value of the cheese burger.  The reason that slavery is so heinous is that it places a monetary value on human persons.  However, the human person is beyond any monetary value.  There is nothing for which we can trade the human person that does not ultimately devalue, and remove the dignity, of the human person.  We often sell our very selves for something of much less value than our self!  Slavery is selling yourself for something of less value than yourself.  We lose our dignity when we become slaves.  When you sell yourself for the image of what you think others want you to be you lose the dignity of knowing who you are truly created to be… you lose yourself and, ultimately, gain nothing real in return.