In our daily lives, we place values on so many things in our lives.

When we buy a vehicle, it has a listed price, but our question to ourselves is… “How much is that vehicle worth to me?” The answer to that question usually decides whether we buy it or not. This is true of anything we buy, whether it’s a vehicle, clothes or a house. We may even find it difficult to relate to anything that doesn’t have a value. This value is usually stated according to the currency system used in our country. In this system, the smallest value is a penny, and it goes up from there.

Now, think of things that we don’t put a monetary value on, such as friendship, or our house location. They don’t have set values, yet we try to give them values. We may consider the amount of dues paid to be a member in a group, such as a golf club, as a fee to spend time with others. We may consider how much transportation will cost to travel daily from our home, as affecting what value we put on that house. Assigning values helps us to embrace these things in our life.

To further embrace faith in God, it would be helpful for some people to look at faith as also having a value. We can’t really put a dollar value on faith, but what if there was a way to define a value? Suppose it had its own currency? What if the currency was like this:

The penny represents love. Pennies are plentiful and everywhere, and when we live faithful lives, shouldn’t love also be plentiful and everywhere?

The nickel in this currency is trust. When we have love for one another, trust usually follows. Trust is also a crucial part of our history. Remember “In God We Trust?”

So, where does this leave the dime? The dime represents relationships. When you have love for others, and you build a trust with them, they’re like family. We often have friends who we feel even closer to than our blood relatives. Also, isn’t our relationship with God most important to us, as members of God’s family?

Quarters provide a solid basis for our largest unit. Our faith is built on prayer more than anything else, so the quarter would represent prayer. There are four quarters in a dollar. Prayer represents the four cornerstones of the dollar.

This now brings us to the main unit in our currency, the dollar. Let’s think of why we look for the value of something. Usually it’s because we want to take action. In most cases, it’s using currency as the basis for us to act in some way.

Many of our actions are affected by how we value what we have in life. In our currency of faith, our main unit, the dollar, would be action. In our faith, due to our daily interactions, our actions should be the dollar in this currency.

All of our actions should be based in faith.

Speaking in the currency of faith, this means that our actions should include love… and trust… and relationship… and prayer. A life that includes these attributes would be a joyful one.

Also, the more that love, trust and prayer enter relationships, a richer life you will have.

So, faith really does have its own currency, though we may not have realized it.

As we use monetary currency to value parts of our life, the currency of faith can value our entire life.

Luke 12:34 tells us “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

We just first need to value that treasure in the correct currency.

May God’s peace and comfort be with us all. Amen.

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Finding Faith is written by area pastors. This week’s column comes from Pastor Gary Shumway of Garman Lutheran Church in Pine Creek and Grace Lutheran Church in Jersey Shore. Learn more about the church by visiting www.garmanlutheranchurch.org.