March 14th, 2009
Is God Nudging You?
I was all ready to go in a totally different direction with this week’s Family Matters until I came across an article (of which a portion appears later) that spoke of finances. Then, I received another e-mail written by a missionary in Australia about finances. If that wasn’t enough, a commentary I have been reading on Ecclesiastes had a chapter I read today dealing with wealth. So you know what…we’re going to make sense of it all and see the warnings God would have us heed and lessons we need to learn.
There is fear everywhere. From individual families facing economic uncertainties to small and large businesses trying to survive. Then, there are the billion dollar companies posting quarterly losses in the millions and, sometimes, even billions. People like Warren Buffet warning of worsening times to come and even billionaires like T. Boone Pickens and his wife are asking the government for financial help with projects they are undertaking as philanthropy has dropped off in many areas. Municipalities are laying off essential potentially life-saving public safety employees. Even the Sesame Street entity is laying off workers despite bringing in 145 million dollars annually.
OK. I get it. Things are bad. But they’re not THAT bad. Case in point is this highlight from a larger article: OBAMA’S RHETORIC IS THE REAL CATASTROPE (Friday Church News Notes, February 27, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from Bradley Schiller, “Obama’s Rhetoric,” The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 13, 2009: “President Barack Obama has turned fearmongering into an art form. ... As he tells it, today’s economy is the worst since the Great Depression. Without his Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he says, the economy will fall back into that abyss and may never recover. This fearmongering may be good politics, but it is bad history and bad economics. It is bad history because our current economic woes don’t come close to those of the 1930s. At worst, a comparison to the 1981-82 recession might be appropriate. Consider the job losses that Mr. Obama always cites. In the last year, the U.S. economy shed 3.4 million jobs. That’s a grim statistic for sure, but represents just 2.2% of the labor force. ... 1981-82 job losses totaled 2.2% of the labor force, the same as now. ... In 1930, the economy shed 4.8% of the labor force. In 1931, 6.5%. And then in 1932, another 7.1%. ... The latest survey pegs U.S. unemployment at 7.6%. That’s more than three percentage points below the 1982 peak (10.8%) and not even a third of the peak in 1932 (25.2%). ... Real gross domestic product (GDP) rose in 2008, despite a bad fourth quarter. The Congressional Budget Office projects a GDP decline of 2% in 2009. ... It is nothing like 1930, when GDP fell by 9%, or 1931, when GDP contracted by another 8%, or 1932, when it fell yet another 13%. Auto production last year declined by roughly 25%. That looks good compared to 1932, when production shriveled by 90%. The failure of a couple of dozen banks in 2008 just doesn’t compare to over 10,000 bank failures in 1933, or even the 3,000-plus bank (Savings & Loan) failures in 1987-88. Stockholders can take some solace from the fact that the recent stock market debacle doesn’t come close to the 90% devaluation of the early 1930s. ... A more cool-headed assessment of the economy's woes might produce better policies.”
Perhaps a more cool-headed assessment of the Bible could ease our fears a bit as well. Solomon was the wisest and wealthiest man that ever walked this earth. Solomon could have gone anywhere and done anything he so desired without any thought to cost. He had nothing holding him back. Yet, throughout the book of Ecclesiastes he tried about eight different ways to find happiness and came to the conclusion that all of his attempts were like a dog chasing a car. Once the dog finally caught the car, he didn’t know what to do with it. The thrill was in the chase and the excitement was in the possessing of riches, but in Ecclesiastes 6:2 we find that it is God who is responsible for giving us the capacity for enjoying the riches. Wealth without God is an empty existence.
Here’s another thought about wealth, should we possess it anytime in our lives. It’s not ours to do whatever we want to with. I’m not even talking about tithing right now, because the command to tithe has nothing to do with whether we are wealthy or not (i.e. the widow in Luke 21)…it’s just expected by God to be done. The wealthy in that passage are giving what they felt they wanted to because they had much wiggle room. The lady gave of what she needed to live on. Her heart was right toward her money…it was God’s first and if she was moved by God to give, then He would work out the details to supply her needs.
Look at 1st Timothy 6:17-19, “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” Right now you might be thinking, Listen pal, I’m not rich. I’m barely making ends meet. Think on these figures and if you’re still feeling you have not enough…send me an e-mail:
· 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.
· Over one-billion people live in poverty worldwide
· 1.6 billion people live without electricity
· An American earning a wage in the lowest tenth-percentile is richer than 2/3 of the world’s population.
· To be a member of a club that touts the members as being in the top 10 percent of the world with respect to wealth required a salary of only $61,000.
The truth is that things are bad today, compared to what we’re used to, but most of us still are OK. But God taught me a valuable lesson last week. At my job, I can make quarterly bonuses if I reach a certain criteria. I found out that I was going to be falling short, so I began over-booking myself at work in order to reach the mark to be eligible for the bonus (a significant amount of money). I admit that I had all that money earmarked for a few different things, and then I began looking ahead to other quarters and daydreaming about earmarking those bonuses. I was being selfish. Then, I got sick…lost hours at work…ultimately lost out on my ability to earn the bonus. Whether God made me sick or not is not the issue. The issue is that He, at the very least, allowed it to happen knowing I’d forfeit the bonus.
Why do I tell you this? Let’s look at it in light of 1st Timothy 6:17-19. I have, at times, talked to people about what I can afford to do from time to time and I have been known to be sure to attach the price tag for the item somewhere in the conversation, in a way to be proud of my achievement (being highminded). Then, I already explained to you that I was looking ahead to future bonuses that are very uncertain if I lose my job or lose my health again. I wasn’t being satisfied with what God was giving me. With that bonus money my first thought, after tithing on it was to take it and buy some much “needed” golf equipment. My thought wasn’t to give beyond my tithe to the church and I wasn’t thinking to distribute or communicate (share) my blessings, had God allowed me to earn them. I fell victim to fear. What if my hours dry up and I can’t play golf anymore. I need to get while the getting is good and secure my ability to play throughout the summer. That’s what I told myself, and see what it got me…a loss of money in the end.
Our attitudes have to be this: Give to get more TO GIVE MORE! That’s what I have been believing and trying to live for the last six years and I have testimony upon testimony that can validate that desire. But I praise God that He only taught me a lesson instead of allowing a full-blown crisis to enter. Just that little gentle nudge has put my focus back to where it needs to be and to not play into the fears of the media.
Now, just like Solomon, I shared my shortcoming with you to warn you to be thankful for what you have. Whatever your job earns you is better than zero dollars an hour. A letter from a missionary in Australia can show us the dangers of relying on money, wealth, and riches and seeking after them without regard to what God would have us to do. Pastor Buddy Smith, in a letter, recounts the Nation of Israel being far from God and on the verge of worshipping other gods when Elijah prayed for the material wealth (mammon) Israel took for granted to be stripped away so that Israel would have nothing and would once more return to God to provide their needs. God caused a drought, because of Elijah’s concern for the waywardness of Israel, but during that time, God provided for Elijah, and he was never lacking for anything (1st Kings 17). That is a sentiment that David echoed in Psalm 35:25, I have been young, and now I am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
I guess for us Christian families it comes down to this simple fact. If God owns all the cattle on the thousand hillsides (basically everything is at God’s disposal) do we need to take matters into our own hands and chase wealth? And if we decide we must chase wealth, what’s our motivation? Should we fear the collapse of the world’s finances and the genesis of a single global economy? No, it’s going to happen anyway, but we won’t be around for it.
I learned my lesson in that gentle nudging. My focus will be back on being thankful to God for what He has allowed me to have. I will reprioritize with an emphasis on not only continuing to tithe, but to also increase in my missions giving and other times as God leads me. I will not anticipate riches that have not come my way, nor rely on my own efforts to make wealth.
It sums up this way. Solomon chased and found no happiness, but God gave him those riches. Solomon (and me for that matter) didn’t catch on to what Paul was able to in Philippians 4:11-13, Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Paul had riches and then he didn’t have riches. Paul was full and then Paul was hungry. Paul had everything and then Paul had many needs. Yet, he learned to be content having it all and having nothing. How did he learn to be content for richer or for poorer? Verse 13 tells us he could do all things (learn contentment) through Christ.
I’m sure Paul gave freely of his earnings, when he had them, to the work of the church. He wasn’t selfish like I was, or the rich man who bypassed Lazarus, his fellow human being in need in Luke 16. Paul was able to find contentment among his riches the way Solomon was not, simply because Paul’s heart and motives were right. Don’t forget, it’s the love of money that is the root of all evil, not money itself. And the Bible is very clear that where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:21). For a moment, my treasure was new golf clubs and my heart was into making the money and earning the bonuses to assure that would happen…God nudged me back to reality.
If you evaluate where you are and you find you’re trusting in yourself to attain wealth and you’re counting on the uncertainty of future riches, snap out of it and save God the time of giving you a gentle nudge, because you wouldn’t want a crisis of manna drying up all around you to turn your heart back to the things of God.
