So what does God want for us with respect to our financial
management life? The first thing to
learn, is the concept of true ownership.
In order to own something, it is equivalent to being able to control
it. Humans, particularly Americans, are
quite fond of the idea of ownership. We like to own our things. Sometimes we try to own people. We enjoy the idea of owning our success,
owning our own destiny - our fortunes left in our hands. All ideas we embrace. All of them mistaken. Just when you think everything is going your
way, some unforeseen thing enters your life and changes everything you
thought. The saying “life is what
happens while you’re busy making plans” is rather appropriate.
The truth is we are NOT in control of our lives. We are at the mercy of events beyond our
control, like disease, warfare, global economic influences, weather, a whole
list of things we cannot change. As I
write this blog, there are a series of fires burning all throughout the state
of California. Many people will lose
everything material they ever valued, some of it will be replaced, but not
everything. In point of fact, they are
at the mercy of the blaze. We cannot
through will alone, save our homes from the fire, extend our aging process,
remove all our weaknesses, add inches to our height, etc.. In addition, there are those who study, work
hard, are diligent and never seem to ‘catch a break’. They do not wind up millionaires. They live, work, and die all without
recognition or wealth. We really do not control our
destiny. God can if we allow it. Satan will, if we do not choose otherwise but
we will discuss this further in another post.
So if we do not control anything, perhaps we can never
really own anything. The native
Americans who preceded us on this continent were amazed that we thought we
could ‘own’ the land. This was
completely senseless thinking from their perspective, as they believed the land
‘owned’ us. How can you own something
that outlasts your very existence? At
some point you will die, and anything in your possession will pass to someone
else. Therefore is it truly yours? At best, only for a time. You are a tenant, of your things, not an
owner. You may have temporary influence over
the disposition of your things, but any number of factors beyond your control
could quickly change all of that. The
only being with a rightful claim to ‘own’ anything becomes God. After all He is responsible for creating most
everything in the first place. Your
ability to use your things is therefore temporary.
Our God knew that our lives required a daily struggle for survival
in this world cursed by our choice to embrace evil. He knew that money (or a currency of
understood value) would become necessary as part of the method we use to
conduct commerce and survive as a species.
He knew we would spend a great deal of our time here on earth, in the
pursuit of our own survival. And He did
not want us to forget what was truly important, and who was actually in control
of everything. So He devised a system
for us to give back some of what we would earn to His work. This is why the concept of tithing (or paying
10% of your income, and more in free-will offerings) was started. The idea predates
the establishment of the Jewish faith (see Abraham giving tithe to Melchizedek
a priest of God), and was carried forward through Christ’s day (see the story
of the widow’s mite).
This method of systemic giving requires faith on the part of
the believer. Even in today’s age we
look at our money, look at our bills, and realize we do not have enough to pay
both God and our creditors. We reason
that God will understand our shortfall, our creditors are not so
forgiving. And in our logic, we deny ourselves
the lessons God intended for us to learn.
‘Evil’ has succeeded very well, in marketing to us the idea, that we
need every penny we can collect. We also
need to spend and buy more and more all the time never able to quench the
insatiable need to have just a little bit more.
We wind up wrapped in a self-centric cycle of self-indulgement and our
concern for others grows less and less.
But as usual with ‘evil’ ideas, this whole process leaves one empty,
alone, and completely unfulfilled.
God wanted us to remember that He
is truly in control or our lives and our needs. When we pay Him first, we demonstrate our
faith in His ability to meet our needs.
We effectively release control of our money and our lives to our
God. And the beauty is, He NEVER fails
us. Somehow, inexplicably, we meet our
needs. We may not still become
millionaires while we pay back to God what was His in the first place. But we will not die, and most times not even
suffer, from learning to give back to God.
God actually promises us that we are unable to out give Him (and no He
is not just referring to the gift of Salvation where we stand no ability to
compete in a giving challenge). He
promised this with respect to our finances.
And what’s more the Jewish people of old knew this, and used it, and got
quite rich in the process. Some of our
predecessors paid 60-70% of their income in tithe, and God returned even more
to them. We admire this level of faith,
but frankly I think they were just smart enough to employ a guaranteed method
of raising ROI (return on investment).
See therein lays the beauty of God’s design. He does not need our money. But we desperately ‘need’ to give it to Him,
as the giving process changes us. Giving, refocuses our priorities
away from ourselves and on to others.
Giving, can change the core of our values system away from
self-indulgent cycle evil would have us embrace. Giving, helps us understand the government of
Heaven. Giving, is what our God did
FIRST for us and continues to do for us all the time. Giving, is the secret to finding real joy in
your life, finding real fulfillment that no-one can take away. You want to experience a life altering joy;
step out of your comfort zone, get up off the sofa, and find a way to help
those poor folks in California who are losing everything in the fires. Or go help the folks in Louisiana who are
trying to rebuild their lives even today after the devastating hurricane that
plagued that entire region.
Or how about just carrying a dollar with you in your upper
shirt pocket, or in the visor of your car; so that when you encounter that
homeless person on the street corner you can give it to them without
judgment. What the homeless person does
with your money is hardly the point; the giving will change you, and maybe
change the world. This is something you
can do no matter how poor you are, and trust me it works. I used to be the first person to judge the
authenticity of the reportedly ‘homeless’ person, or his motives for wanting my
money – then I realized who I was judging.
Turns out it was me. I looked in
the mirror and saw a picture of selfishness staring back. Ouch.
I started carrying my homeless dollar ever since, when I was employed,
and for years between gigs. I don’t know
how many I have given out, and I have come to realize this small pittance is
not enough to make a real difference, I need to do more. But I would not have ever seen that need,
without altering my behavior by
giving. Now I know that homeless person
is TRULY my brother. He is me. He may well be a direct representation of my
God. I have no right to judge, and am
instead SO grateful for the lesson learned from simple giving.
The joy of giving is contagious. It may lead to painful self examination, but
it then leads one to find ways of making even more of a difference in the lives
of others. This is what God intends for
us to discover when we begin giving back to Him. Christians so often feel the need to inject
themselves into someone else’s life in order to ‘save’ them from their evil
ways. These Christians feel this need,
because the very people they think they need to save, are not seeing these
Christians as anything they need to aspire to.
In short guys, we are not living the principles we preach. I admire President Clinton for his work for
the poor, I admire Jimmy Carter for building houses, I admire those who I see
making a difference in our world.
Christians are not so admired, because they seem to be equally obsessed
with getting the next thing, and not so concerned about the struggling ones
right near their own homes. We don’t
need to force the Gospel on to unbelievers, we need to live the principles
Christ outlined for us, and the world will come knocking on our doors – wanting
what we have found. That is the way of the Gospel. That is how words become more than words, and
meaning is found in life, even here amongst all this evil and pain. And it all begins with learning a simple
lesson of giving …
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