I read an article a few years ago that talked about how, in Biblical times, people that sold items like flour, frankincense, or myrrh, at the local marketplaces often falsified their scales.
For example, they would tweak the scales so that a half pound of flour would register as a full pound … allowing them to make more money for less product.
(Of course, nothing like that happens today. :))
The point of the story is that, as human beings, we often measure our value or worth by the fabricated scales of those around us.
We take someone else’s opinion, reaction, or even experience, and hold on to it as absolute truth, failing to remember that—since Eden—we all have a lens of brokenness and sin that flows into our worldview.
Insight and guidance from those around us is extremely important, and is often a way in which God can speak to us. But, at the end of the day, God is the scale that we can always count on … the one that provides pure and honest measure.
The truth is … sometimes “making our lives count” consists of tuning out the lives around us, and tuning in to the One voice that outweighs all.
