“Then he said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’”1
“In The Death of Ethics in America, Cal Thomas quotes a letter written to the Washington Post in the mid ’80s. ‘I’ve lived both lives, Yuppie and non-Yuppie,’ the writer said. ‘In the first, I was married to a professional woman and on our dual incomes we Club Med-ed, sports car-raced, alpine skied and Kennedy Centered our 14-year marriage into oblivion.
“I’m now 42, remarried to a woman who gave up her ‘professional’ career to provide full-time care for our one- and five-year-old daughters, and living in Gaithersburg, Maryland—on one salary. Trips to Australia and Europe, Saturday night dining at Nathan’s, and Wolf Trap concerts are distant memories. Vacations are now taken in our nine-year-old used pop-up camper, and dining out means ‘Hooray! Daddy’s bringing home a pizza.’ We’ve just started into the second round of … one hundred readings of Pat the Bunny for our one-year-old. Satisfaction level in my first life measured about 2 on the 10 scale. Measured now, satisfaction is about 9.5.’”2
One thing is certain, money can’t buy happiness, satisfaction, love or loving relationships. These qualities come from within and are greatly determined by our values and attitudes. There’s nothing wrong with money in and of itself. It’s what we do with it that counts. As God’s Word said, it was “the love of money” that was “a root of all kinds of evil.”3
With noble values one can do noble deeds with his or her money. It’s a case of motives: Do we possess our possessions or do our possessions possess us?
Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please deliver me from the sin of trying to keep up with the Joneses and putting material possessions first in my life. Help me to have a healthy attitude towards money and possessions, earn what I can within reason, and contribute sacrificially, generously, and wisely to worthwhile causes—especially causes that help my fellow man and bring glory to your name. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”
1. Luke 12:15 (NIV).
2. Michael Josephson in Character Counts. www.charactercounts.org
3. 1 Timothy 6:10 (NIV).
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