What Does Money Do To You?

This healing lesson has not come easily for me. I too am exposed to a pervading culture where we are all in. A culture that puts so much stock on the temporary. To find security in money. To fall in love with possessions, the latest fads.

I must admit that I'm alarmed at the trend of how money can destroy individual lives and relationships. People have dollar or peso signs in their eyes and faces. Taken to the extreme or "addicted" level, many around us have actually thrown away their bodies, souls, marriages, children, dignity etc. - for money.

Now don't get me wrong. Of course, we all must make a living, including my self. We all need to support wise handling of finances. There is a time for business, jobs, money, insurance or savings plan. We can appreciate anything that can make life easier or comfortable for us and our families. But none of these can truly secure our future.

About 1/5 of Jesus' recorded words in the Bible is about money. He knew of our propensity to fall in love with or get addicted to it. To worship it. To find security in it. And so He challenged us to "store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal" (Matthew 6:20).  In 1 Peter 1:3, 4, the apostle Peter talked about the only guaranteed, lasting investment: "In His great mercy, He has given us new birth onto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade - kept in heaven for you ..."

We may be slow. Maybe, broken. But we can choose to wake up. As Rich Mullins put it, "The stuff of earth competes for allegiance I owe only to the Giver of all good things."