Money, Money, Money…

This topic, the subject of this little blog, is decidedly abstruse, recondite, and arcane. We all want it, the more the better it seems, but the mystery concerning it is monumental. It’s the dirty little secret we don’t discuss in public. It’s something we think we understand, yet fail to understand. It can be the source of abundant pleasure as well as the source of copious amounts of pain. It’s a perplexing riddle that is both easy to solve and impossible to solve. It seems to represent both status and power, yet actually personifies neither. It appears to be elusive and reserved for a small, closed group, yet once you have it seems to replicate itself. It is the apparent cause of most people’s problems yet portrays itself as the solution to most people’s problems. It is the promise of the lottery ticket and the curse of having too much. Is it simply a means of exchange or does it symbolize so much more?

In our culture today, money represents a means of exchange for goods and services. We usually don’t have some cows for trade or bushels of wheat and barley. But, in America, we have money, cash in fist, dineros, dough. Money pays for the things that we need and want. If we do not have enough money, then we struggle in getting our needs met. Food costs money, homes cost money, cars cost money. Even our beloved fun and good times often cost money. Yet recognizing the vast impact money has on the quality of our lives, we fail to give it the priority it deserves. We harbor these confusing views concerning it. We have all heard the stories of the people that seem to have a lot of it and how reportedly difficult their life has become. Yet is it really the money that causes the problems or the failure on the part of the possessor to control themselves? In the United States we have an abundance of food, readily available and relatively cheap. And for this reason, we also have trouble with obesity. We can literally eat ourselves to death. We eat beyond our need or maybe beyond three people’s needs and lament our sluggish and diminished state. It seems then again to point more toward the mindset of the possessor than the availability of the resource.

It has been said that money rules the world. But, does it really? I think it would be more fair to say that money as the means of exchange determines in a large way just how happy you are going to be. Oh sure, we can all cling to the old adage that we don’t need it, usually said by people that don’t have it, as a sort of self-righteous stand against what it represents. But, I would submit that you still have to get your needs met. If you always have to say no to an activity or opportunity to do something, not because you don’t want to but because you cannot afford to, you are doing yourself a disservice. You are erroneously concluding that money is something you cannot obtain or shouldn’t obtain because of its so-called reported evils. But, what evil could be associated with a means of exchange? If you owned a chinchilla farm and paid for your needs with chinchillas, could someone accuse you of having too many chinchillas? Would anyone give you a solemn warning concerning the evils of having too many chinchillas and demand a reduction? You see, we got it all wrong in this regard. The love of money is the root of all evil not because money is evil, but because the love of it is and loving it as the source (not a means) in your life leads you down a path replete with pain, suffering and misery. Like the rich person that cannot say no to things because they can afford them or the obese person who cannot say no to food because it tastes good, the issue isn’t the money, it is the control you have over yourself. God is the source of our lives and the source of the money we need to buy things. Thinking He is opposed to you having more than enough money to get your needs met, to get your wants satisfied, to be able to bless and help others get their needs met, is not thinking soundly.

The point, if you haven’t gotten it by now, is that it is your responsibility, with God’s help, to crack the money code. Figure it out and figure it out quickly. Don’t live out your existence with a growing list of unmet needs. Stop acting like it is noble to go without all the time. If your Daddy owns the cattle on a thousand hills, do you think He would be the one opposing you? And for God’s sake, get it out of your head that you are somehow being greedy. People that are truly greedy never entertain the thought that they are being greedy. Instead wonderful people like you and me are the ones that entertain it. Those of you who are parents, how do you handle getting your kid’s needs met? I would submit, as a parent, that you would do whatever it took to get your child something they really wanted, let alone what they actually needed! You would spare no effort in figuring out a way to bless them. Well, how about God? Do you really think he is checking and stifling you to live below par; to settle for less; to go with your needs and wants unmet because the fulfillment of those things requires some dough? Hardly! Again, we have been sold a bill of goods…

Money is simply a means of exchange and while you don’t always need the money, but instead need the thing, there is absolutely nothing wrong in believing God to get the money. Money isn’t evil, loving it and trusting it and worshipping it more than God is evil. I would guess that most people, not all people, have less money than they need and are selling themselves short in settling for less than what God, as The Loving Parent, would want them to have. Raise your expectations. Cease from considering that your lot in life is to be meager and limited when God is unlimited! You already know, right now today, if you don’t have enough, right? Well, there are lots of people that have more than enough; way more. The limit isn’t God, the limit is you! Money, money, money! Get some! You need it…