A pastor met one of his parishioners, Jeff, on the street. Jeff looked sad and almost on the verge of tears. The pastor said, “Hey, my friend, how come you look like the whole world has caved in?”
The sad fellow said, “Let me tell you, pastor. Three weeks ago, my ex-wife's uncle died and left me $50,000. He must have forgotten to change his will after the divorce.”
“Well," said the pastor, "I'm sorry to hear about your ex-wife's uncle, but inheriting all that money isn't bad at all ....”
“Hold on," said Jeff, "I’m just getting started. Two weeks ago, a cousin I never knew kicked the bucket and left me $95,000, tax-free to boot.”
“Wow," said the pastor, "That’s great. I wouldn’t mind that.”
“Then last week, my grandfather who I haven't seen in years passed away. And I inherited almost a million dollars from him.”
“Man." said the pastor, "That's something. So, why are you so glum?”
“Well," said the troubled parishioner, "This week — nobody has died.”
Money is an important part of our lives. It can rule our moods and influence the way we think. If we are doing well economically, we tend to feel all is well with the world. If we are in debt and not making ends meet, we have a lot of stress and anxiety. When our nation's economic picture is bright, we tend to be more buoyant; when it is struggling like it is right now with higher gas prices and more inflation, we are worried.
Money determines a lot of our lifestyle choices: what we buy, what we eat, what we wear, what we drive. A part of our own self-definition is wrapped up in money. If we have lots of it, the temptation is to feel superior to or more intelligent than those who don’t. If we don't have much, we are tempted to think poorly of ourselves. We may think of ourselves as worthless, inferior, or of little value to others.
Money is important to our spiritual lives, too. Jesus talked a lot about money. He talked more about money than any other topic except the Kingdom of God itself.
Still, there is something more important to our happiness and welfare than money. When a lawyer asked Jesus what the most important thing in life is, Jesus did not talk to him about money, he talked to him about love (Matthew 22:34-40).
The most important thing we can do is to love God with all our hearts, our souls, and our minds. The second most important thing is to love our neighbors as ourselves. Our success in life, our feelings of self-worth and happiness, and our joy depend much more on how well we love and worship God and care for those around us than they do on money.
Money is important and nice to have, but only if we are going beyond our own self-centeredness to become God-centered and love-oriented, will we have an abundance of joy in our lives.
Money for the Christian becomes a tool of love. If we work for it with integrity, save and invest it well, we may find that we have enough to give generously to God and to meet the needs of others. If we become outward-centered in our use of money, we will have great joy because our generosity is an act of love. When we give of ourselves and our resources, we become like God, who has been so generous with us.
He has given us the gifts of forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. We will forever enjoy his love. We might as well start enjoying that life now by loving God and those whom God has placed in our lives. Generosity with our money is one of the ways we show love to God and our neighbors.
Dr. Dan Darby is a retired United Methodist pastor.
