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I started to a write a post about money and ministry, and all the current gossip and debate surrounding it, and my past experiences with money in the church, but I realized that the more I wrote, the angrier I got, and I was making my own point moot with increasingly judgmental thoughts towards others. So I deleted it all.
I will say this: I'm so thankful to have married a man who truly does NOT struggle with the love of money. I chuckle as I write this, because sometimes I wish the struggle was there, because it would mean we have too much of it. Oh, what I could do with too much money. Hmmm...or what it would do to me. I'm getting ahead of myself!
Back to the point, I'm thankful that my husband didn't dive into ministry to make money. If he did, he would be miserable! Either because ministry=poverty (slight exaggeration, kind of) or it means an excess of money, along with a life under a microscope and an invitation to all the different kinds of evils that come along with money. Obviously, my husband has a family to provide for, and God knows that. He' taken great care of us. I cannot complain.
Nope. My husband doesn't have a bone in his body that loves money more than God. It feels weird saying that, like I'm setting the scene for someone to disprove me, but I'd swear in court that it's the truth. In high school, he felt led to be a youth pastor, so his goal was to graduate from Dallas Theological Seminary with the necessary training and vision to serve God and minister to kids. Nothing to do with money. In fact, he was a smarty-pants with plans to go to med school and be an ER doctor. I'm almost certain that with his perfect AP test scores, Mensa level brain, and desire to help others, he would have been a shoo-in at doctor school. Alas, no go. God apparently didn't have plans for him to make the big bucks in the medical field. Good thing, or I may never have met him. However, I have to admit that sometimes, as we re-do our budget or argue about my latest trip to Anthropologie, I like to slip in a little comment about him still being young enough to apply to med school. Try telling a football player that he should really think about being a synchronized swimmer.
So I'm not going to write about money and ministry, or comment on all the things going 'round about megachurch pastors buying million dollar mansions. Instead, I'll tackle this verse.
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 1 Timothy 6:9
I need to write this on my mirror with that red lipstick I never wear. There are days when all I can think about is wishing we had more money. Enough to take a 10 day vacation to the Bahamas, or go on a new wardrobe shopping spree, or quit my job and be a true SAHM, or buy my kids all the things they want in the world without batting an eye.
Thing is, I have no desire to plunge into ruin and destruction. I want to teach my kids that everything we have is from God, and we leave this earth with nothing. No use in storing up this and that... we can't take it with us. And if we have more than we need, it's time to start giving it away.
On days like that, when I come to my senses, I have to brush away tears that come from knowing I wasted precious minutes of my time dwelling on what I don't have or could have, instead of being grateful for what I do.
I lived here for more than 10 years. Not the here pictured below, but close enough to have more of a taste of what true poverty is than most Americans. When I look at pictures of the poverty in Manila, Philippines, I am struck by the incredible realization that I am wealthy beyond words, and my kids are blessed beyond compare. When we are blessed with more money than we need, we will use it to help those who need it more than us. Simple. Sometimes hard to swallow. But true. No mansions here. (The children below would beg to differ- we live in the Taj Mahal in their eyes, and we could fit 10 families of 5 in the house we call home).
Philippians 4:11-13
For I have learned to be content, whatever the circumstances may be. I know now how to live when things are difficult and I know how to live when things are prosperous. In general and in particular I have learned the secret of eating well or going hungry of facing either plenty of poverty. I am ready for anything through the strength of the One who lives within me.
