My Bible fell open to Ecclesiastes 5:10: Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless.
Finances have become an issue, a conversation topic, a constant nagging concern lately. At this end of the year, we’re feeling tight. Time and money are both running out, and we’re frantic to experience and learn everything in the time left. Money is becoming my constant shadow, reminding me that there is never enough, nunca suficiente.
My roommate opened her online banking account and started laughing. “My checking account is exactly the same number as my savings account.” The coincidence was funny until we realized the significance: we’re poor students. That number is going to go in the wrong direction pretty quickly.
But Solomon has a point: it’s all meaningless. The more we acknowledge money as significant, the more it controls us. The farther we let this constant nagging push us, the farther away we are from things that matter.
In his Nooma video “Rich,” Rob Bell brought up a good point: we are rich. A billion people in the world don’t have water. Only 8% of the world has a car. It doesn’t matter that my car needs a new paint job. I’m still rich.
Even though I take classes in the art of marketing and I know the tricks, I still fall for a good window display. Every day I’m told that to be happy, I need to have something else, something new. But it’s never going to be enough. When will I just figure that out and find some real to chase?
I have everything: I have amazing people in my life, I have amazing opportunities, I have air in my lungs. None of this came about because I earned enough money to buy it. These are all from God. Money isn’t going to solve any problems for ourselves. But we could use our money to solve problems for each other.
Here’s the catch from Rob Bell: Experts say that it would take around $20 billion to provide basic food, water, and care for the world. That’s how much every year that Americans spend on ice cream.
Ice cream! Not even nutrition for survival; ice cream, a dessert full of temporary satisfaction in the form of pointless calories and sugar. We ARE the Joneses.
But it’s not even about the money. It’s about God. He gave us all these things for a reason. I think it’s about more than a check written for charity and then taken off our taxes. God gave us more: we have time, energy, love. We have more than enough; we are blessed.
