Understanding What Has No Value to You

Last updated on: October 15, 2013 at 11:37 am by Alicia T. Crosby

Understanding What Has No Value to You 2013-10-15T11:37:06-04:00 Alicia T. Crosby

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“You have to work on understanding things you have no reason to understand.”

Aside from her general awesomeness, I appreciate my best friend because she isn’t afraid to tell me what I need to hear. I struggle relating to things I find no personal or indirect value in and can be dismissive at times because of that. She shared the quote above with me in a conversation one day and it stuck with me. There is such wisdom in her statement and its helping me reframe how I see things.

Why should we care about things that don’t hold value for us? That’s simple enough – life isn’t just about you. Now clearly, there are some things that need to be done away with and others that need to be reformed but just because something doesn’t work for you doesn’t mean it can’t hold value for another person who has different needs, desires and is called to live a different life than you. That thing can hold incredible value for them because their perspective is different.

This is one of those things I’m learning to walk out now in a lot of areas but especially as it relates to the church. There are things I will flat out call stupid because I find them to be excessive or generally pointless. My bestie’s statement has challenged me to reframe the way I approach things. I’m trying to pause when I get critical and ask:

Why does this have no value for me (aka why do I think its stupid)?
Who could this hold value for?
Why does/could it hold value for them?

I’m not gonna lie and say this is universally flawless because its not. There are some things I just can’t understand or relate to but I can say that it has opened me up to seeing things from other perspectives which is something priceless.

I encourage you to think about something you’ve brushed off or cast aside because you couldn’t find direct value in it. Take a few minutes and ask yourself the questions noted above and consider what this thing you dismissed could mean to someone else.

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