-Money Blog Part 3: Value vs. Cost-

Not long ago, in a galaxy not so far from here, an organization conducted a study about income in Americans. It asked several questions of people about money and income and budgeting. I wish i could remember details of the survey but unfortunately most of it has slipped my memory. The one thing that has stuck with me however, was what they reported about their findings as it related to how much income was "enough."

The reports said that in their findings, the majority of those surveyed indicated that "enough" income was about 10% more than they were currently bringing home; REGARDLESS of their current income level. This means that the person making $20K a year thought that if they could just make 10% more they would have enough. It also means that the person making $250K a year thought the exact same thing. 10% more and they would finally be making enough. But would it really be "enough"?

I'm persuaded that it's never "enough." That for some reason we are conditioned in our culture to never be content with what we have but to always want and even need more. Even to the point to where we allow our happiness depend on it. We are conditioned in this culture to want to attain a certain level of wealth and we think when we do attain it that we will finally be content. But it's just not true. Because it seems that we are wired to always think we need just a little more.

The problem with this mode of thought is that it cares more about the value of money than it does the cost of it. Getting more money will always cost us something. To some, it can cost time with their family. To others it will cost a piece of their integrity. To some it will cost them their mental and sometimes physical health. And still to others who take it to an extreme it will cost them their freedom. And the more value we place on money, the higher the cost. You'll know how important money is to someone when you get a peak and what they are willing to do and say and become in order to get more of it. This is not how we were designed. when we were designed, money did not exist.

But money does, in fact, exist today so we cannot simply ignore it. But we also must always keep it in perspective. If we don't we will always lose something while trying to resolve our monetary concerns. Too often monetary wealth leads to spiritual poverty. Along that same line, often times monetary poverty can lead to spiritual wealth. It's been my experience that the people who have the least are much happier to share what they DO have where as those who have the most tend to be much less generous unless they stand to gain something from it, (i.e a tax write-off). And that isn't really generosity is it?

So how do we resolve this. Do we say, "To hell with money!" and forget about it? No, I think that would be a waste of an opportunity. Again, money exists in our world and we can't ignore it. But what we can do is change the way we think about it. As Paul writes, we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. (Romans 12:2) We need to think of money as an opportunity not an obtainment. I'm not suggesting we stop trying to make more money. I'm simply saying that when we DO, we use it in ways that place the proper value on it. We must learn to use our money to serve God's purposes rather that using ourselves to serve money. Don't make the point of money become about "having more," make the point about USING MORE. Use your money to invest in love, in your family, in yourself, in people. Use it as a means and not and end. And always, always make sure the cost is never greater than the value.