The Deceptiveness of Riches

“For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”  I Timothy 6:10

There are several sayings about money:  “Money can’t buy me love (from the Beatles hit song), “Love makes the world go ’round, but money greases the wheels”, “Money can’t buy you happiness when you’re growing old (from the old song), “Too many people spend money they earned…to buy things they don’t want…to impress people they don’t like”–Will Rogers, and, then my personal favorite by Steve Martin, “I love money.  I love everything about it.  I bought some pretty good stuff.  Got me a $300 pair of socks.  Got a fur sink.  An electric dog polisher.  A gasoline powered turtleneck sweater.  And, of course, I bought some dumb stuff, too.”  Well, I must say, I have never bought any items like those, but I have bought some dumb stuff in my life, but age has a way of making you smarter with your money, at least, for some of us.

Money should not be an end in itself.  It is a tool to help provide those things that families need to survive.  God knows what we need, and He will provide if we depend on Him.  Our problem is that we want way more than we need.  If we are not careful, we will focus so much on making money that other things, like time with the family, regular worship, Bible reading, helping our neighbor, and even recreation can fall through the cracks.  My sister-in-law told me a long time ago when my children were young that it is not the things that you buy for your children that they remember; rather it is the time that you spend with them, the places that you go together, and the adventures that you encounter along life’s highway.  Stuff eventually fades away, but happy memories can last a lifetime.  One memory that I have as a child was when my parents and I went to Florida in my Dad’s 1949 Pontiac.  Back then there weren’t fancy condos and big hotels in which to spend the night.  We stayed in a boarding house.  The proprietor had placed notes all over the room to tell guests what to do:  “put suitcase here”, “do this” and “don’t do that”, etc.  I remember a neon sign outside the window that flashed “Vacancy” off and on all night.  When we arrived, there were no restaurants open, and there certainly weren’t any fast food places.  The only place that we found open was a bar.  They didn’t have food, but I remember having chocolate milk, and my parents had a 7-up.  Why a bar would have chocolate milk is still a mystery to me.  Perhaps they had served other families like us in times past.  Anyway, I was only six years old and remember these details, but I don’t remember what I got for Christmas or my birthday that year.

There is another saying associated with money, and this one is true:  “Here today, gone tomorrow”.  I am sure that lots of folks pretty much thought they were on “easy street” or at least keeping their heads above water, and then the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and everything changed practically overnight.  Folks couldn’t even find toilet paper on the store shelves.  What if all the food had also disappeared?  What good would money do then?  Without food, even a wealthy person could not survive.  This should be a warning to all of us to stock up and have some canned goods and nonperishables to last for a while.  I am not talking about hoarding, but rather just being smart because as quickly as the pandemic hit, we never know what’s around the corner.  Hopefully things will get better, but there’s no guarantee.  If the time when Christ returns is not that far off, then we are in for a really bumpy ride.  Politicians have no power to stop prophecy.  Matter of fact, they likely will contribute to it.  Anyway, enough of all that depressing talk.

Folks used to quote the above Bible verse as “Money is the root of all evil”, but money can’t do anything on its own.  It’s like a gun.  A gun can’t shoot a person on its own.  Someone has to pull the trigger.  It is kind of funny (funny strange, not funny ha ha) how the “love” of money can do so much damage, yet it is the “hate” in folks that does even more damage.  I have never heard anyone say that they hated money.  Maybe, just maybe, if folks began to hate money because of the bad things that people do because of it or if they would at least put it in its proper perspective, and then began to love people, that would surely go a long way in bringing some peace and contentment to a world that is sorely lacking.