My Hope Is Built On…?
I don’t know about you, but I have no idea how to budget. I mean, I was paying attention when we did that lesson in high school, truly, but it is just a lot harder in real life. I mean it just takes so much structure and discipline! I’m more of a ‘vibe’ girl - I like going with the flow. And I hate stressing about money. So I don’t. Which means I don’t have a budget. And we all know what that means ... That’s right: I spend too much, I save too little and, despite my best intentions, I forget to give it away. So I went on a mission to find a book on budgeting at my local Dymocks.
When I finally found the finance section I was accosted by a floor-to-ceiling display of garishly coloured, large-titled texts which screamed at me “How To Make A Million In A Year”, “You CAN Make It On The Stock Exchange!” and “How To Start With Nothing And End Up With Everything”! There was a ray of hope when I saw “The Savvy Girl’s Guide to Money” (attractively bound in chartreuse [I believe this is a yellow-green colour boys – ed.]) – cute and conservative. However, upon a quick perusal I came to the chapter on ‘Financial Horoscopes’. Any hope I had that this might contain something intelligent and helpful immediately vanished!
All I wanted was a book titled “How To Handle Money Sensibly” or something like that. But these books weren’t encouraging me to handle money sensibly – they wanted me to handle money slavishly. It reminded me of a story Jesus told about a man who handled his wealth stupidly:
“And [Jesus] told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’” Luke 12:13-19
The rich man had a problem… well, kind of. The kind of problem you have when your diamond slippers are too tight and there isn’t room in your wallet for all your fifty dollar notes! His farming business has done so well this year that he has no room to store the material wealth he has amassed. He’s got barns that are bursting with grain. He has 500 t-shirts and only 365 days in the year to wear them. He’s got 20 Rolls Royces and only a 10 car garage!! What is a man to do?!
Well the answer is obvious: Build bigger barns! Tear the old garage down and construct a new one! Wear 2 t-shirts every day! Relax! Eat! Drink! Be merry! Sit back, slap yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for your cleverness and razor-sharp business acumen. (Nevermind that you actually had no control over the environmental factors that ensured your bumper crop.)
This man has the savings dilemma sorted. His superannuation package is secure and enormous! He is pensioned off at 40 years of age and is looking forward to a life of comfort, ease and security. He is living the Australian dream. Except for one small problem…
But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:20-21
Just when he was about to be on the cover of BRW’s ‘Young and Rich’ edition he finds himself dead and spiritually destitute before God. Why is he a fool? Because his hope was founded on his financial security. His hope was built on his accumulated assets. His hope rested in his dynamic career path, his healthy bank balance, his share portfolio, his investment properties and all their associated benefits. And they all amounted to absolutely nothing in the end. He dedicated his life to laying up treasure for himself yet acted with utter poverty towards God.
What will you do with your money? One day you will graduate and, God willing, start employment. What are you dreaming of doing once you start earning? How are you going to make sure you are not a fool, like the rich man? How will you seek God’s kingdom first? How will you work for heavenly, lasting treasures rather than earthly, corruptible ones? How will you avoid being ensnared by a love for money and a temptation to find security in it?
The truth is, it starts now. What is your hope in now? Where is your security? How are you spending your money now? What are you putting your energy into achieving now?
I still haven’t worked out budgeting. But I know that that’s not where I am resting my hope.
[Kimberly Baker]
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