You don’t need to have everything to be somebody.

Over the past few years, we have had our leaders called upon to declare their wealth. While some were hesitant to do so some felt that it was an opportunity to showcase their financial muscle.

The objective of this exercise was to essentially promote accountability and openness in handling resources especially when it comes to finances.

Your Influence is directly proportional to your net worth is an old narrative. For a poor young boy or girl in the village, their dream is to work hard and acquire wealth to rescue their family from the claws of poverty and have access to power that is more often associated with money.

While it is an awesome dream, the way it is packaged sometimes is a worrying trend.

Everyone wants to be rich; I included. We spend almost our entire lives chasing the coveted and most precious paper or coin.

 We end up giving every ounce of energy and zeal to get a hold of riches. As the desire to be rich grows bigger so are the means, the old narrative of working hard no longer holds water.

We are all in a rush for quick fixes, patience is at times termed as laziness.

These standards of wealth at times end up defining who we are in the long run. If we are not careful enough we end up losing our identity in the rush to be among the wealthy.

While it is good to have everything that life can offer, we must acknowledge that with or without them we are worth more.

In a world where we are defined by our net worth, it is easy for one to think that they are worth nothing if they don’t have access to riches.

 We overlook good leaders and despise them if they do not have lots of money. We at times sarcastically say in slang, “Huyu hana kakitu atatuambia nini“.

 We end up siding with people who have nothing to offer in terms of leadership other than their money.

Last year during one my devotion I came across a story of a young Roman nobleman named Julius Caesar was kidnapped by pirates and held for ransom.

When they demanded 20 talents of silver in ransom (about $600,000 today), Caesar laughed and said they obviously had no idea who he was. He insisted they raise the ransom to 50 talents! Why? Because he believed he was worth far more than 20 talents.

What a difference we see between Caesar’s arrogant measure of his own worth and the value God places on each one of us.

Our worth is not measured in terms of monetary value but by what our heavenly Father has done on our behalf.

What ransom did He pay to save us? Through the death of His only Son on the cross, the Father paid the price to rescue us from our sin.

 “It was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18–19).

Our worth as human beings is far much greater than any possessions in the world.

You don’t need to have everything to be somebody, by virtue of being created by God means that our worth is found only in Him.

If God thought that our value was equated to money then he would have sent us more money instead of His only son Jesus. Let no one look down upon you because of you are broke or poor, remind them every day, I am worthy.