Kingdoms and Kings

by Ryan Krzykowski

We talk all the time around here about meaning and purpose.  We end every blog post and podcast with the tagline, “Keep coaching with purpose”.  Something inside us understands that what we do matters, and that’s at least in large part because people matter.  How often do we sit back and think about why that’s the case?  Why do people matter?  What gives them significance? 

There’s a lesson in the Coaching With Purpose workbook, one of the lessons Alec wrote, called “Value”.  Alec asks us to consider a Picasso masterpiece, worth millions.  He then asks us to consider the raw material that went into creating that work, basically some paint and a canvas, which are relatively worthless.  What gives the painting its value?  Is it the beauty and creativity of the artist?  Perhaps, but if that’s the case, why is a copy or print of the painting worth next to nothing compared to the original?  No, there’s something about the quality of the work combined with the knowledge that it was created directly by the hand of a master that makes it so valuable.

There’s something inside each of us that understands that the people in our lives, specifically the young people we coach, have an unimaginable value.  But why?  There are plenty of explanations, but there’s little doubt the best of those explanations bring us back to the idea that each of us is created directly by the hand of a Master.  We are made in the image of a God whose combination of perfect love and infinite power can take our breath away.  C.S. Lewis once wrote that we have “never talked to a mere mortal”, that each of us, as image bearers of God, has an eternal soul and we dare not fail to take that seriously.

Some might suggest that we can take that idea of the value we ascribe to people and separate it from the notion of a loving Creator.  I disagree.  With no Master, there’s no value to the created work.  It’s like wanting the benefits of living in a kingdom without acknowledging the authority of the king.  This post and video by Ben Beasley speaks to that very idea.  I love the way Ben tactfully asserts that apart from the King, there can be no Kingdom.  There can be no definitive word about what’s right or wrong, what has value, and that in fact, submitting to the authority of our King Jesus is the only way to understand the value of ideas like kindness, service to others, sacrifice and love.  Those who accept the values of the Kingdom can only truly live into those values under the King’s rule.

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