Ihave recently been involved in some car care issues and have had to have “estimates” performed for the work that needed to be accomplished. This is often a harrowing process on a car with 200,000+ miles on it. The estimates for one piece of the work led to estimates for the next broken or worn-out part.

The interesting thing about the garage that was doing the estimating, and the work never seemed to underestimate and every part plus labor seemed to always be $500 or more. Yes, I’m still healing from the interaction and the lightness of my wallet.

Humans often spend time estimating. Jesus even had a parable that he taught about the need for us to estimate the cost of something before we jumped in. Not estimating leads to disastrous consequences and (at least in Jesus’ teaching) some level of community assessment of our lack of ability.

Humans often estimate other humans and their potential or abilities. This we term prejudice. Prejudice is the act of “pre-judging” a situation or person. We (who always know better than someone else) assess the situation and the person and estimate whether or not the person will be able to rise to the challenge. Often, we find that the person is more capable than we gave them credit – in other words, we underestimated them and their abilities.

Underestimation of other children of God occurs every day. People of different cultures, ethnicities, locales, languages, races, genders, et cetera, are evaluated on the perceived merits of whatever box we have placed them. We expect some folks to fail because we believe that as a group, they are less capable, smart, gifted or able than we choose to believe are we. We also tend to underestimate the power that we have to either keep someone down or to lift them up. Our attitudes toward people and situations can have a dramatic effect, both positive and negative, on both the situation and the person.

Spiritual writer Leo Buscaglia has this to say about our power to affect the world in a more positive way. He teaches, “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” Not just a life but a household, neighborhood, community, State, Country and world.

Our underestimation of the positive effect we can have on how our world affects others is really hampering us right now. All of our sacred texts teach us that we need to love each other and work together so that the world functions as God intends. Underestimation of others holds us back and makes us less than we are created to be.

We have all been underestimated in our lives. It doesn’t feel good and isn’t the way for us to develop a strong sense of self or purpose. The blessed assurance that we have as beloved children of God is that God never underestimates us. In fact, the Bible tells us that we have been created in God’s likeness and have God’s image placed inside of each of us. When we grasp the meaning of those acts of God, then we begin to understand that each of us is special and uniquely gifted to do something amazing in the world and for the world. Allowing others to underestimate us limits our ability to flourish and that is a sin.

If you are struggling with underestimating your own worth, or if someone else is underestimating you, then I invite you to come to a faith community this week.

There you will find people who are discovering just who they are in God and in a community of likeminded believers. In that loving community, people find the safety and security to be able to hear God say to them that they have been made very good indeed. In a healthy faith community, you will find ways to live out your gifts. Never underestimate the power of a supportive God in a supportive community to change the world. In other words, never underestimate God.

Blessings for your journey!

The Rev. Albrant is pastor of Mineral and Mount Pleasant United Methodist churches.