A Spiritual View on Money
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Some of the most comical TV commercials are the ones touting reverse mortgages with celebrities standing alongside the ultimate senior man toy . . . a beautifully restored 1950 Ford convertible just like Bobby and Peggy Sue used to cruise around in. Oh, those Madison Avenue advertising rascals!
All boomers and seniors age, but they don’t all mature, like the “I worked hard and deserve it” type blurting from his TV recliner, “Hey honey, ya know that trip to Paris, Tuscany and Athens we’ve talked about for years? Let’s tap our home equity and do it. We’re only goin’ around once, ya know.”
Reverse mortgages, originally aimed at elderly people who need income but don’t want to sell their homes and leave their comfortable surroundings have now become giant debit cards. Granite countertops for the kitchen, a new swimming pool, a 75-inch TV, transferring auto loans to home equity credit lines and instead of paying off the car in five years, now paying it off in 30.
Not only are the frivolous tapping their home equity to maintain their lifestyles, but they’re also kicking it up a bit. And to use this option as a cookie jar for luxuries they never had in the first place is insanity when they have no clue what kind of financial emergencies may crop up in their future.
Some lesson in financial wisdom for their children. It’s no wonder so many Gen Xers today look at every creature comfort in terms of monthly payments. They lease and charge their way to hell because they can’t stand to be one step behind their equally stupid friends. They have zero respect for money with no intentions of ever preserving or investing any of it.
How Much Money is Enough?
With many of us, it’s always just a little more than what we have. Another $500 a month to stay ahead of the bills, redo that bedroom, eat out a little more, get a new SUV, etc., etc. But “just a little more” seldom goes away and when we can’t satisfy our need in cash, we do it with our plastic cards.
So how do we make these habits go away? By pondering and heeding those simple words in Ecclesiastes 5:10-15 . . . “Whoever loves money never has money enough.”
We don’t have to take a poverty vow or cop an attitude of spiritual snobbery where we say money doesn’t matter (because it does). But we do need to keep a balance with this “God and mammon” thing as it’s said in Matthew 6:24—
“No one can serve two masters. You’ll either hate one and love the other, or despise one and be devoted to the other. You cannot serve God and mammon both.”
Time to Honor Your Money
CBS’s 60 Minutes once showed a piece on money attitudes. In the film shot, they purposely placed a handful of change in the middle of a sidewalk, only to watch pedestrians step right over, around and through it without any thought of ever stooping down to pick any of it up.
Over my life, I logged roughly 55,000 miles in my running shoes. But whenever I spotted a penny, I’d stop and put it in my pocket. Now over a period of 40 years, it probably didn’t amount to more than a total of a dollar. But there was something about “respect for money” regardless of the amount that prompted me to take it home.
It’s an old-fashioned mentality that has gradually dissipated since the days of our great depression when people actually would scramble for any penny in sight.
Imagine our world if instead of compromising ourselves to America’s attitudes of squandering and frivolously blowing our money, we took on a new attitude of respecting our money—Honor it. Don’t Squander it.
To be above the world when it comes to money is a noble state of mind. And it can happen when we begin to honor our money and become more egoless, self-abased, humble and thankful for all we already have no matter how it compares with what others have.
The worship of money can be destructive to our pursuit of freedom. Ask yourself—do you own your money or does your money own you. When you respect and know the source of your money and steward it in a way that pleases God, you begin to understand what money really is from a spiritual instead of a worldly perspective.
True financial freedom begins when your money, your emotions and your spirituality are all kept in balance. When we talk about honoring money, we don’t mean money per se. That falls into the “love of money” trap promoted by our modern-day culture. We’re talking about honoring your money—the money you have in your possession right now—the money that passes through your hands every day, with every paycheck, social security check, cash that flows through your business and so on.
Honoring your money means doing the following—- Being thankful for all that you have, and looking DOWN the ladder with thanks more often than UP the ladder with envy.
- Treating your money with special care, against-the-grain from our common cultural views about money. Treating it with the same type of care you would when nurturing and cultivating your roses or your bonsai plants.
- Recognizing its source; the fact that all money is not OUR money, but HIS money — God’s money.
When we acquire money, it’s really God lending it to us and testing us to see how we’ll steward it. When we use it right, we just might receive more abundance in the form of more money with which to do more good.
But not always. Maybe we’ll simply have less for ourselves as a result of our stewardship, but have gained abundance in the form of greater fulfillment, happiness, love, friendships, and most importantly, a closer relationship with God.
Christ’s parable of the talents didn’t necessarily mean dollars for dollars, but abundance for abundance, and not always in the same form.
Be a Money Rebel
In same way good Christians need courage to stand up and defend the Gospel, defending prudent money behaviors in our self-acquisitive money-loving culture can be just as challenging. It takes being a bit of a “money rebel” to do it.
Money rebels can rise above the social pressures to appear prosperous. They’re independent in their thoughts and actions, and don’t fall into established customs, fads and opinions of others about money.
Our great nation has had many leaders whom we could consider rebels and who’ve made substantial and historical contributions—Ronald Reagan, Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy to name a few.
An even greater example was Jesus Christ. With the incident of the money changers in the temple, he didn’t just walk into God’s House and sheepishly mutter something like, “C’mon guys, let’s break it up.” Storming through that sacred place and physically flipping tables on end while chastising those money changers was a rebellious act in a powerful way.
Imagine us being that rebellious today. Walking into a business that we know is ripping people off, storming through their isles like a bull in a China shop and tossing their merchandise about. Jesus did it. Could we?
Great Role Models
I remember once as a financial advisor, driving up to an 800 sq. ft. shoebox of a cottage with a 15-year old Dodge Dart in the driveway in an unimpressive neighborhood. And as I sat with this fellow on his “Early Goodwill” couch, he pulled out his brokerage statements showing $900,000 in municipal bonds.
His friends thought he was a lunatic for living this pauper lifestyle. But because of his courage, moderation and respect for money, he was awarded a life of true financial contentment that he enjoys today. He was a modern-day model of Proverbs 13: 7— "One man pretends to be rich, yet he has nothing. Another pretends to be poor, yet he has everything.”
Some of the most admirable managers of their personal finances are people with minimal education who work two and three jobs to feed their kids and keep them in a safe living environment. People we could all learn lessons from about humility, thankfulness and financial contentment.
I have the greatest admiration for people of small means who take care of what they have. Recently I spotted a clean-cut blue-collar fellow in his mid-forties behind the wheel of an ‘89 Olds Cutlass in impeccable condition. The car probably had a market value of less than $1000, but when he stepped out of his modest possession you could see him bursting with pride.
Compare this man with today’s teeny-boppers tooling around in their BMW convertibles for which their Baby Boomer mommies and daddies are forking out $600 to $800 a month lease payments. And there’s always the other guy with that same model ’89 Olds Cutlass—dented, dinged and decorated in multiple shades of primer.
Did you ever notice how many people of modest means seem to always have their act together with no hang-ups or put-ons? Two of my most beautiful friends, a married couple in their fifties, lay tile together for a living. At a social gathering you’ll instantly notice their simplicity and total contentment with their lot in life to the point that you’re drawn to them more than anyone else in the room. People will start yakking to them about their latest stock market hit or beach condo, and my friends simply smile and nod their heads in acknowledgement, yet never being affected by or ashamed of what they don’t have.
Add to these role models, some of most alive and interesting retired people who have little money. You’ll see them on Elder Hostel trips, driving vacations, at budget motels and eating at McDonalds with their
Imagine the life of peace we could live if we could heed more often Paul’s message to the Hebrews in 13:5— “Let our lives be free from love of money and be content with what we have”
Money may buy a $5,000 bed, but not a peaceful sleep—a beachside villa, but not a home—a sidekick, but not a friend.
