Jeff’s Blog

[I've been meaning to write this for the past two weeks, but kept putting it off because I was too lazy to upgrade WordPress and wanted to catch up on missed TV shows. Tonight, however, I was poring over my finances in Quicken and agonizing over how much I would be able sponsor a friend who's going overseas to "teach English" in "East Asia." Vicky asked me, "Why are they asking you for so much support if they can already support themselves with the salary they're getting from their current job?" That prompted me to think about what I talked about two weeks ago and finally write this post.]

Two weeks ago I did the unthinkable and gave a talk at a Cal AACF Large Group meeting. It was an exhilirating experience, to say the least, and I was a nervous wreck all the way up until the moment I got up to speak. They asked me to speak on Matthew 6:19-34, the passages about “storing up treasures in heaven” and “do not worry, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” I spent about three or four weeks thinking, preparing, praying, and yes, worrying about what I was going to share that night. This is what I talked about, or at least the jist of it…

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Here’s the text of the first passage I read from, pasted from Biblegateway.org:

Treasures in Heaven

¹⁹“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

²²“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. ²³But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

²⁴“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

It’s funny that the passage mentions thieves breaking in and stealing things, because I’ve had a particularly bad streak with that over the past few years. During my senior year of college, my apartment was burglarized not once, but TWICE. In total, I lost two cameras, a laptop, and some other stuff, including all my quarters for laundry (my roommates lost several things as well, such as laptops and some pairs of shoes). Both times, I remember being extremely angry; I was seething in anger at whoever did this to me. I had even hoped for my then-recalled Dell 600m battery to explode on the burglars. In retrospect, I took that pretty hard. Then, about six weeks ago, actually right before I was asked to speak at AACF, my garage was broken into and someone made off with my mountain bike, which I occasionally use to commute to work. I’d had that bike since Jr. High and had recently spent a substantial amount on new gear and a tune-up. This time, however, I was pretty at peace with the loss of my bike. Maybe it’s because I make money now and can just afford a new one, but I think there’s more to it than that. I know that now, in my heart, my view of my possessions has changed since back when I was in college.

You might wonder why I would share about money and possessions. People generally avoid talking about this in churches or even in their own immediate families. It’s understandably difficult for a church pastor to preach on the subject of money and giving, since they’re the ones who directly benefit from the congregation’s donations — it’s essentially a conflict of interest, albeit a necessary one. Still, despite present-day taboos, money is a very important issue, especially for the Christian. In fact, it’s the most commonly covered topic by Jesus in His ministry on earth; ~15% of His spoken words (the words in red in your Bible) have something to do with money. In the Bible as a whole, more than 2,000 verses have to do with the believers’ handling of money and possessions. [Info sourced from Randy Alcorn's Money, Possessions, and Eternity]

Still, why would I go talk to college students about money? After all, most don’t have jobs and barely have any money of their own. College students are always jonesing for the free pizzas given away at frat rush events, business info sessions, and credit card sign-up booths. The last thing they’re probably thinking of is managing their wealth! To that, I would argue that college is THE best time for someone to start thinking about what they’re doing with their money. The whole reason for going to college in the first place is ultimately for future financial security — in other words, you go to college to get a job and start a professional career. If you’re financially secure, you don’t need to go to college (this is why Bill Gates never finished!). The average college graduate with a bachelor’s degree probably starts out with an annual salary of at least $60,000 (a modest estimate for the Bay Area). When moving from an annual income of $0 to an income of $60k+, it’s quite a shock and a huge temptation to go and live a $60,000 lifestyle even though we could be living on a lot less and giving away a lot more. It’s not like we do it on purpose; we just lack wisdom and guidance for what to do with all this extra money now, so we spend it on ourselves and eventually accumulate expenses that accomodate our salaries. But just like in the Parable of the Talents, God gives us much to be responsible for, and it’s up to us to yield to Him a good return on investment. In fact, if you make $60,000/year for the rest of your life and work from ages 25-65, that means you’ll have been entrusted with $2.4 million! Sure, a lot of that would go to taxes and other mandatory government expenses, but still… that’s a lot, and essentially you will have been a millionaire over the course of your life! And over the course of someone’s life, if you look at where and how they spent their money, it paints a rough picture of their life. In fact, along with prayer and other spiritual disciplines, how you spend your money is a major index of your spiritual life.

I said before that the Bible says a lot of things about money and possessions, but two of the more important points I’d like to highlight are that (a) God’s people are to be wise and prudent with their money and possessions and (b) all believers, Old and New Testament, must give. I won’t touch much on the first topic, except to point out examples given in the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) and the Parable of the Shrewd Manager (Luke 16:1-15). Also, there are tons of places to get advice on how to wisely and prudently manage your money — just read some magazines, blogs, and websites, or watch CNBC (oh, wait…). But the second topic, that all believers must give, is the crux of what I’m trying to say here. In the Old Testament, God commanded the Israelites to give a tenth of their livestock/harvest (Lev. 27:30-32) and in the New Testament, givers are commended all over the place — I’m sure you can find many many many examples. The message here is that giving money away is the best way to spend it; it’s the biggest investment you can make in yourself. Let me say that again:

Giving money away is the best way to spend it.
It is the biggest investment you can make in yourself.

This is getting pretty long, so I’ll cut things short here and expound upon this in my next post, which should come tomorrow if I’m not too busy. Stay tuned!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 1:12 am and is filed under Christianity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.