Marked by Price, Lost to Value: A Soul’s Wake-Up Call

Marked by Price, Lost to Value: A Soul’s Wake-Up Call

By Kateb Nuri-Alim Shunnar

Let’s be honest this world has gotten a little backwards. You can buy a follower, rent a friend, order a relationship online, and get a diploma without stepping foot in a classroom. We've become masters at attaching price tags to everything how much is the house, how much are the shoes, what’s the salary, what’s the return on investment?

But ask someone, “What’s the value of your peace?” and they freeze. “What’s the worth of a long hug from your grandmother? What’s the price of an apology that comes from the gut, not from guilt?” Blank stares. The calculator crashes. We know the price of everything, but the value of nothing. And that, my friend, is spiritual bankruptcy in a Gucci suit.

Let’s break it down real smooth-like:

Price is measurable. It fits in an Excel sheet.

Value? Now that’s spiritual. Emotional. Personal. Unpredictable. It's the part of life you can't scan with a barcode or charge to your card.

Now, let’s talk about how we do the Creator because whew, some of us got the Creator on the clearance rack. On standby. In a dusty box like a fire extinguisher with a sign that says, “Use Only In Case of Emergency.”

Some of y’all treat the Creator like AAA Roadside Assistance. You haven’t called in months, years even but the moment you’re stranded in the middle of the highway of despair, you’re dialing the heavens like, “Hey, yeah, it’s me again… uh, so listen, I kinda messed up everything, but if You could just bail me out one more time, I promise this time I'll change.”

Spoiler alert: the Creator still shows up. Not because we’re good. But because the Creator is.

But imagine treating someone you love like that a mom, a partner, a friend. Only calling when you need a ride, a favor, or to borrow money. Eventually, they’re gonna say, “You know what? Lose my number.” But the Creator? That sacred number don’t change. The Creator doesn’t block you. Doesn’t hang up. Waits patiently, lovingly. Even while you out here ghosting like the Divine never carried you through your last collapse.

See, the truth is, some of us have become divine gold diggers. Let’s just say it. We want the blessings, the breakthroughs, the miracle money, the soulmate, the six-pack abs with zero effort (Creator, deliver us). But we don’t want the discipline, the surrender, the trust walk, the praying-until-it-hurts part.

We want harvest, but we didn’t water anything. We want the fruit, but we mad that the tree needed pruning. We want the crown, but we despise the process.

And then we get mad. “Why isn’t this working, Creator?! I did my part! I prayed for three whole minutes yesterday!” Let’s be real. Some of y’all got a relationship with the Creator shorter than your coffee brewing time. If your prayer life had a Fitbit, it would be in a coma.

Here’s a funny story for you. I remember once praying, all serious, “Creator, give me patience.” The next day, every traffic light turned red, every line was long, every phone call was with someone who didn’t know how to make a decision. I said, “This is ridiculous!” And I heard in my spirit: You asked for patience, not convenience. I laughed, because I realized the Creator doesn’t drop character traits in your lap like Amazon packages. They’re cultivated. Grown. Often through discomfort.

The Creator doesn’t cater to your flesh. The Creator feeds your soul. Big difference. And you’ve got to stop trying to get spiritual fulfillment from worldly formulas. It don’t work. Trying to fix a soul problem with material solutions is like duct taping a cracked heart you’ll still leak.

Now let’s get real about this culture of price worship. These days, we think value comes with logos and status. We honor the man with the gold watch more than the man with a wise heart. But wisdom don’t trend on social media. Kindness doesn’t go viral. Humility doesn’t have brand sponsorships. But these are the things that sustain us when the storm comes and baby, the storm always comes.

Let me take you into a little folklore. There’s a story told of a poor boy who found an old, muddy lamp by the riverbank. It looked like trash. He almost threw it back, but something made him stop. He took it home, cleaned it up, and found a message etched inside: “What’s hidden may be more valuable than what shines.” Turns out, the lamp was made of a rare material, more precious than gold. The village tried to buy it, but he said, “It was worthless to you until it meant something to me.”

Boom. That’s how the Creator works too.

What you dismiss as common, the Creator calls chosen. What you abandon, the Creator revives. What the world says is broken, the Creator says is becoming.

So let me ask you again: who is the Creator in your life?

Is the Creator a genie you only rub when life rubs you the wrong way?

Is the Creator the cosmic Santa Claus you better not pout, better not cry, better behave so you can get your blessing?

Or is the Creator the Breath that holds your bones together? The Flame that keeps your soul from freezing?

I know this ain't always easy. Faith is hard when you can’t trace the outcome. Especially when bills are due, friends are flaky, love feels distant, and your reflection in the mirror don’t look like the Instagram version of you.

You feel like saying, “Creator, where are You?” And sometimes there's silence not because the Creator is absent, but because the Creator is working. Just like a teacher stays quiet during the test. That don’t mean they’ve left the classroom.

Funny how we trust airplanes more than the Creator. We board, buckle up, and nap..no idea who's flying or what’s going on under the hood. But when the Creator says, “Trust Me,” we need confirmation, evidence, a notarized document, and maybe a Zoom call with subtitles.

Meanwhile, the Creator is parting seas, healing wounds, whispering grace, and carrying you through seasons you thought would kill you.

And let’s talk about this consumer mindset. We’ve become spiritual shopaholics. Consuming sermons, quotes, videos but not digesting anything. Eating bread of the heavens, but spitting out the crust. Wanting depth, but only in bite-sized, motivational snippets. You can’t grow a tree with sprinkles. Sometimes you need roots that go deep. And roots require stillness.

Which brings me to this: when was the last time you sat still long enough to feel the presence of the Creator? Not just ask. Not just vent. But to listen. To connect. To worship not because the Creator did something, but because the Creator is something.

We need to shift from being spiritual tourists to becoming citizens of the sacred. Tourists only show up when the weather is good. Citizens stay and build even through the storms.

So here's the lesson: if you don’t know the value of what you have, you will sell your soul for trinkets. You’ll trade intimacy for applause. You’ll pawn your destiny for convenience.

But when you know value, you stop needing validation.

You stop chasing things that don’t nourish your spirit. You stop trying to boss the Creator and start walking with the Creator. You stop clocking your spiritual life by what’s in your bank account and start measuring it by peace, purpose, and presence.

Let me break it down real plain.

A price-driven life is:

• Exhausted

• Jealous

• Chronically dissatisfied

• Spiritually constipated

But a value-driven life is:

• Grateful

• Grounded

• Generous

• Spiritually free

You’ll stop trying to fire the Creator because the blessing didn’t come with fries. You’ll realize the Creator is not late just perfect. You’ll stop treating the Creator like an employee and start praising like a co-creator with the Divine.

And humor aside, the truth is this: the Creator loves you deeply. Recklessly. Wildly. The Creator isn’t impressed by your resume or your failures. The Creator wants your heart. The messy, imperfect, sometimes sarcastic, beautifully complicated heart of yours.

So I say this to you with love: don't wait until the tire blows out to realize you had the Divine riding shotgun all along. Don't reach for the Creator only when life hits rock bottom. Invite the Creator to the mountaintop too. Let the Creator be your steering wheel, not just your spare tire.

You are more than a consumer. You were made to co-create with the One who turned dust into destiny. So choose value over vanity. Presence over performance. Faith over formula.

Laugh with the Creator. Cry with the Creator. Be real with the Creator. And above all walk with the Creator.

Because there are things in this life that no money can buy. And among them is the priceless joy of being truly connected to the Source of all life.

Now go ahead and live like someone who knows the difference between what glitters and what actually glows.