Our Value

A speaker once walked onto a stage, pulled out a $20 bill, and asked, “Who would like this?”

Every hand in the room went up. He crumpled the bill, held it up, and asked again. Every hand remained raised. Then he threw it on the ground, stomped on it, picked it up, and held it out once more. Now it was wrinkled, dirty, and beaten up.

“Anyone still want it?” Every hand stayed up.

The bill had been crumpled, stepped on, and dirtied, but its value had never changed. It was still worth $20. And sometimes, we forget that we are the same. We go through painful experiences, make mistakes, or find ourselves in circumstances that leave us feeling broken, lost, or without worth. But what happens to us does not determine our value.

That value remains when we are in pain. The calm still exists beneath the turbulence. The sun is still there beyond the clouds. Neither disappears simply because we cannot see them.

So if all you can see right now is what’s missing, remember: you are not alone, and you have not diminished in value. You are simply moving through your story, just as I am moving through mine. Maybe right now, all you can see is a crumpled, dirty $20 bill. But its worth was never in how it looked. Its worth was always there.

So keep pushing. Keep going. Keep looking for the other side. Whether you can see it now or not, it is waiting for you.

And maybe, deep down, you already know that—not because life suddenly returned to you exactly as you hoped, but because, like your worth, it was there all along.