Asking the question, “How much is enough” seems almost un-American, doesn’t it? Whatever our current salary or income, we want more. However much we have invested, we want it to grow to become more. No matter how big our business, we want to make it bigger. “More” is woven into the very fabric of  the American psyche.

The multimillionaire, John D. Rockefeller, was once asked the question, “How much money is enough?” He answered quite transparently, “Just a little bit more.” In other words, “I will never have enough.” Might this be our conscious or unconscious mindset as well?

Let me ask you a probing question, “Is this ‘never enough’ mindset a spiritually healthy place for a believer to dwell?”  I have given this question a good bit of thought and my answer is, “It depends.” Let me explain the three issues it  depends on.

1. Restraining Our Greed

Reading Luke 12:15, I noticed something I had never seen before. Jesus says, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” What caught my attention for the first time was the phrase “every form of greed.”  Jesus is informing us that there are multiple manifestations of greed.

The word greed literally means “wanting more” or “eager for gain.” Greed is as open-ended as Rockefeller’s answer. With greed, enough will never be enough.  Greed always wants more.  It is not limited to just material things either. Consider this list of various forms of greed.

1. More money
2. More power/control
3. More pleasure
4. More leisure
5. More food
6. More fame

Greed can be like drinking salt water.  The more you drink, the more thirsty you become. It never satisfies.

Greed has two illegitimate children that you have likely met at some point in your life.  Their names are Envy and Covet. Envy makes us unhappy because we don’t have what others have. Envy drives us to “keep up with the Joneses.” It is what makes us discontent until we can get the same things others have. We cannot rejoice when others get something because we don’t have it too.

Covet is the more sinister of the two.  It actually wants to take from another person what he has. In other words, my gain will be at your loss. Ahab coveted Naboth’s vineyard (I Kings 21). He didn’t want a vineyard like Naboth’s (Envy).  He wanted Naboth’s vineyard (Covet). In Exodus 20 we are told not to covet our neighbor’s house or his wife. It is not that we want a house or a wife like our neighbor (Envy). It is that we want his very house or his very wife (Covet). David coveted Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba (II Samuel 11).  He didn’t just want a woman like Bathsheba (Envy). He wanted Bathsheba (Covet).

One of the most effective ways to restrain greed and its illegitimate spawn is to set very clear finish lines and make them known to others so they can hold you accountable. Some finish lines to consider might be capping your lifestyle consumption or your net worth. Once you meet or exceed the finish lines these additional resources will be used for other purposes. I’ll explain later.

2. Learning to be Content

Greed and contentment are total opposites. A greedy person will never be content and a content person will never be greedy. So while we learn to restrain our greed, we need to simultaneously learn to be content. The New Testament gives us three areas where we need to be content:

1.  Content with your current possessions:  (Hebrews 13:5, “be content with what you have.”)
2.  Content with your current provisions:  (I Timothy 6:6, “If we have food and covering with  these we will be content.”)
3.  Content with your current paycheck:  (Luke 3:14, “be content with your wages.”)

If we get a handle on these three areas of our lives, we will experience a level of financial, spiritual and emotional contentment and freedom beyond anything we have ever known before.  Keep in mind there is a huge difference between being financially independent and being financially free.  You can be financially independent and not be financially free. Likewise, you can be financially free without being financially independent. I know some very wealthy people who are clearly financially independent, but they are anything but financially free.  They are “slaves” to their possessions.  I also know people who do not have “two nickels to rub together” and they are anything but financially independent. Yet, they are entirely financially free.

Our goal is to be financially free. We may never realize financial independence in our lifetime.  But let me ask you, what would be wrong with living a hand to mouth existence if it is God’s hand to your mouth? The most effective way to truly become financially free is to restrain greed and learn contentment.

3. Deploying Our Surplus

What if God continues to bless your hard work and careful management of His resources with more than you need? What should you do with what exceeds your enough is enough limit? The answer should be obvious… give it away – all of it.

If you fail to set any finish lines, you will not know what is surplus and if you don’t know what is surplus, you won’t be inclined to deploy it.

I have talked to more than one financially independent person who has expressed a concern that he/she might need all they have later in life and so they were unwilling to deploy their “surplus” because there was a chance, however remote, it might be needed later. John Calvin responded to this concern long before America was even founded.

What makes us more close-handed than we ought to be is when we look too carefully, and too far forward, in contemplating the dangers that may occur—when we are excessively cautious and careful—when we calculate too narrowly what we will require during our whole life, or, in fine, how much we lose when the smallest portion is taken away. The man that depends upon the blessing of the Lord has his mind set free from these trammels and has, at the same time, his hands opened for beneficence.

Obviously, as Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

For those of us who are driven and gifted to make money, it would be a real loss to stop making it.  But once we cross our personal finish lines, our drive and our giftedness to make more can now be focused on getting more to the Kingdom and not just having more for ourselves.

My friend Randy Alcorn says it this way, “God prospers us not to raise our standard of living, but to raise our standard of giving.” This should be our goal: “live conservatively so we can give liberally.” Giving is no doubt one way in which Christians ought to be “liberals.”

So, the question, “Is this ‘never enough’ mindset a spiritually healthy place for a believer to dwell?” It depends. If our “never enough” attitude is focused on advancing our own personal kingdoms, then the answer is, “No, this is not a good place for a believer to dwell.”  If our “never enough” attitude is focused on advancing and funding the Kingdom of God, then the answer is, “Yes, this is a very good place for a believer to dwell.”

So, how much is enough for you? Are you ready to (1.) restrain your greed, (2.) learn to be content and (3.) deploy your surplus? If so, then get ready for some exciting and radical changes in how you think and how you live!

Download PDF: How Much is Enough

© 2012 Stewardship Ministries | All Rights Reserved.

E. G. “Jay” Link is the President of Stewardship Ministries, a teaching, training, mentoring and content ministry working with churches and nonprofit leaders to equip them with the biblical knowledge and training resources needed to serve all ages and all economic levels of believers to effectively live their lives as good and faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted to them. He is the author of three books, “Spiritual Thoughts on Material Things: Thirty Days of Food for Thought,” “To Whom Much is Given: Navigating the Ten Life Dilemmas Affluent Christians Face” and “Family Wealth Counseling: Getting to the Heart of the Matter.”

There are few things I enjoy more than sitting in front of a blazing fire on a snowy, winter day. I often find myself almost hypnotized as I gaze at the flames dancing wildly before me. But as relaxing as this comforting winter scene is, I cannot help but be reminded of how material wealth is much like a blazing fire. Properly handled, the fire can cook and warm. Improperly handled, it can burn and  destroy. The same fire, yet depending on what we choose to do with it, can lead to two entirely different outcomes – one very good, the other very bad.

Nowhere in Scripture is this contrast more clearly articulated than in chapter six of Paul’s first letter to Timothy. Look at some of the key excerpts from this chapter:

But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But flee from these things, you man of God…  Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed (I Timothy 6: 9-11, 17-19 nasb).

The same material possessions that can produce a profoundly destructive, temporal and eternal outcome can also produce abundant blessings in both this life and the next. Which outcome we  experience is determined solely by our attitude towards them. According to Paul, if we see material possessions as an end in themselves, they will consume us (i.e. “burn and destroy”). To the contrary, if we see them merely as a means to an end – a way to bless others – they will actually greatly enhance our life (i.e. “cook and warm”).

Look at the severe words that Paul uses to warn us about what accompanies a life focused on material things – what I call the Terrible Ten.

1. temptation (v. 9)
2. snare (v. 9)
3. foolish and harmful desires [lusts] (v. 9)
4. ruin (v. 9)
5. destruction (v. 9)
6. root of all sorts of evil (v. 10)
7. wandering from the faith (v. 10)
8. many griefs (v. 10)
9. conceited (v. 17)
10. fix hope on riches [instead of God] (v. 17)

Paul is warning us with his Terrible Ten that riches improperly pursued and possessed will cause the pursuer to immediately and ultimately lose more than he gains. Alexander Pope seems
to echo Paul’s warning when he says, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” Paul is pulling no punches as he describes the destructive side of materialism that we either fail to recognize or simply choose to ignore. The fact is that the larger one builds his fire of possessions, the more dangerous the fire becomes. Remember that Paul had been rich himself.  He had personal knowledge of what he was saying here.

Maybe it was the awareness of this dark side of riches that caused Agur to request of the Lord, “Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion, that I not be full and deny You and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or that I not be in want and steal and profane the name of my God” (Proverbs 30:8b-9). He is saying, “I don’t want to handle something that is as physically and spiritually dangerous as material riches.”

I have never been rich by American standards, but I will openly confess that I have seen signs of all of these Terrible Ten in my own life. And I suspect that if you are completely honest with
yourself, you have seen one or more of these Terrible Ten rearing their ugly heads in your life as well. It is almost impossible to live in such a materialistic culture and not be singed to some extent from the destructive flames of materialism.

Paul states that this out-of-control pursuit of riches is extremely dangerous. He instructs us how to avoid its destructive consequences with one simple word – flee (v. 11). This is not a fire that we are going to be able to control.  It is not a fire that is safe to be around. It is not a fire that will cook and warm. When you see your house on fire, don’t wait around to see if it goes out, don’t gather up your most precious possessions, don’t call for advice on what to do – just flee!

Many of us have already accumulated (to one degree or another) an abundance of material possessions, so how exactly are we to flee? Thankfully, Paul tells us exactly how to overcome the deadly fires of riches and how to turn its certain death into abundant life that will be both an immediate and an eternal blessing to all. Here is what he tells us about how to safely and successfully handle this raging fire without getting burned up by it. He instructs us to put on “fireproof gloves” when handling it. He tells Timothy: Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed (6:18-19).

His “fireproof gloves” are the gloves of giving. If we handle material things with the fireproof gloves of generosity, we will never be burned by them. Rather, we can use them as a source of help, comfort and blessing to others.

What a glorious way to end Paul’s sobering teaching on material riches!  This destructive fire of riches can actually be redirected into a good, healthy and productive purpose. And it is accomplished by sharing our riches with others! Now our material prosperity will bring life and joy to both the giver as well as the receiver.  The fire will no longer burn and destroy; instead it can now cook and warm, not only for us, but also for all those with whom we share.

Do you know how to put out a blazing campfire?  You break up the fire by spreading out the logs. And by so doing the whole fire cools down and rather quickly dies out.  Likewise, when you start spreading out the “logs” of your material possessions by giving them to others, the consuming fire of materialism is cooled and is brought under control, no longer scorching all who come near. The more “fuel” you share with others, the cooler the flame of materialism within you.

Possibly my favorite two words that Paul uses in all his writings are his last two words on this topic – life indeed. Who wouldn’t want life indeed? And as is the case with so much of the spiritual life, it is a counter-intuitive reality that life indeed is found not in what we get, it is found in what we give.

Lord, open our hearts, fit us with fireproof gloves and compel us to spread around the material blessings You have entrusted to us, so that we may store up for ourselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that we may take hold of that which is life indeed. Amen.

Download PDF: A Blazing Fire

© 2012 Stewardship Ministries | All Rights Reserved.

E. G. “Jay” Link is the President of Stewardship Ministries, a teaching, training, mentoring and content ministry working with churches and nonprofit leaders to equip them with the biblical knowledge and training resources needed to serve all ages and all economic levels of believers to effectively live their lives as good and faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted to them. He is the author of three books, “Spiritual Thoughts on Material Things: Thirty Days of Food for Thought,” “To Whom Much is Given: Navigating the Ten Life Dilemmas Affluent Christians Face” and “Family Wealth Counseling: Getting to the Heart of the Matter.”

Let me ask you what I expect will be quite a thought provoking question.  A question you have likely never even pondered. However, it is one we should all be asking ourselves.  Here’s the question, “Has God’s abundant provision in your life become a bridge or a barrier to your ability to trust Him more fully in your life?”

You would think after having experienced such abundant, material provision from our loving Father for all these years, these abundant provisions would build for us a wide and easily traveled bridge – allowing us to confidently trust God in the future based upon what we have experienced in the past.  However, this does not seem to be what happens. These abundant provisions appear, to the contrary, to create a barrier that limits our ability to trust Him more fully. I have seen this in my own life and the lives of many others.  The more we possess the more likely we are to trust Him less. In other words, the more He provides, the less we trust Him to provide. Odd phenomenon, isn’t it?

I was once visiting with a young man who was struggling financially and he responded to my counsel by saying, “Jay, if I was making the kind of money you were making, I could trust God a lot more.”  I responded right back to him and said, “Doug, if I was making the kind of money you are making, I could trust God a lot more.” Doug had come to believe the false notion that his trust in the Lord would increase as God’s provision to him increased. In other words, he thought God’s additional provision to him would serve as a bridge enabling him to develop even greater trust and faith in God.  As logical as this thinking might seem, when provisions start exceeding our most basic needs, they most often end up becoming a barrier –  preventing us from trusting God more, not a bridge – enabling us to trust Him more.

This is exactly what Jesus was getting at when He made the very shocking statement to His disciples in Luke 18:24-25, ‘How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’

Those with a surplus put their faith in their surplus, so they have no need to put their faith in the Provider of the surplus. Solomon confessed, “He who trusts in his riches will fall…” (Proverbs 11:28). When we trust in the provisions of God instead of the God of provisions, we will fall short of living by faith.

I have been on many short term mission trips over the years and the one thing that continues to amaze me is the depth of faith these third world believers’ possess in the midst of what most of us would consider to be intolerable poverty. How can these impoverished believers be so entirely trusting of the One who has delivered so little material provision to them?  The answer is painfully obvious.  They have no material possessions to get in the way of trusting Him totally. For us the question is, “Are we going to trust in our stuff or are we going to trust in the One who has provided the stuff?” For them, the question is a good bit simpler. It is merely, “Are we going to trust in God or not?”

Do You Believe?
Let me ask you, “Do you believe God can and will continue to provide for all your needs in the future as He has in the past?”  I am quite sure all of us would intellectually respond with, “Yes, of course, I do.” David confirms this idea in Psalm 37:25, “I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.”  Amen.  We all believe God can and will provide! Don’t we? Or, do we?

For many of us there seems to be a significant disconnect between what we intellectually believe about God’s ability to provide and our everyday attitudes about what He has already provided to us.

Let me take this line of thinking one step further with another question. If everything that God has currently provided to you so far were to disappear overnight, would your faith and trust in Him continue unshaken? Would you be confident that God would provide for you in the future as He has in the past?  We may at some point in the future find ourselves living on less than we are now, but are we certain that He will never leave us “begging for bread?”

If all our material trappings (and I use this word “trappings” intentionally) were to be stripped away for whatever reason, might it reveal to us that these “trappings” have indeed become a barrier to fully trusting in Jehovah Jireh (God our Provider).

Jesus makes this point in Matthew 6:31-34 when He says, ‘Therefore do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow…’

To paraphrase, “Do not worry about tomorrow and what might happen if the stock market crashes, or if the economy collapses, or if you lose your job or your business or maybe even if you lose it all.” Jesus says, “Seek Me first and I’ll provide for you.”

Let Us Pray
How many of us would be willing to pray, “Lord, take away anything and everything in my life that is even the slightest barrier between You and me, including all that You have provided to me if necessary. If I have You alone, I have all I need.” That could be a dangerous prayer to utter, couldn’t it?

I was leading a discussion on this subject recently and a gentleman in the audience appeared quite troubled by the conversation. He raised his hand and asked quite hesitantly, “What if God told me to give everything away…?”  I looked him right in the eyes and said, “If you were certain God was telling you to give everything away and you did it, you would be the happiest man on this planet!” A “poor” man who is totally obedient and trusting in God is richer than the richest man on earth who isn’t.

Hebrews 12:1 exhorts us, “…let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…” Jesus told us if our hand, our foot or our eye causes us to stumble, we should cut them off and throw them into the fire. (Matthew 18:8-9).  Likewise, if what God has provided to us is preventing us from fully trusting in Him, should we not likewise be compelled to lay them aside – to part with whatever we possess that is entangling us?

So, are your provisions a bridge or a barrier to fully trusting in Jehovah Jireh? Let’s not forget, we came into this world with nothing and we will all leave that same way (Job 1:21). May we all, in the time between our arrival on and departure from this earth, be careful not to unconsciously allow what we possess to become the object of our security, our trust and our hope. May we instead trust in the One who has so graciously provided it all to us to manage while we are here.

Download PDF: A Bridge or a Barrier

© 2011 Stewardship Ministries | All Rights Reserved.

E. G. “Jay” Link is the President of Stewardship Ministries, a teaching, training, mentoring and content ministry working with churches and nonprofit leaders to equip them with the biblical knowledge and training resources needed to serve all ages and all economic levels of believers to effectively live their lives as good and faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted to them. He is the author of three books, “Spiritual Thoughts on Material Things: Thirty Days of Food for Thought,” “To Whom Much is Given: Navigating the Ten Life Dilemmas Affluent Christians Face” and “Family Wealth Counseling: Getting to the Heart of the Matter.”

When we were first married, my wife and I went on a weekend camping trip with my best friend, Tom, and his wife at a local lake.  We decided to rent canoes for the afternoon.  As our leisurely canoe ride ended, my wife and I rowed up to the dock and stepped out of our canoe.  Tom and his wife pulled up next to our canoe intending to step out of their canoe into our canoe and then on to the dock. Tom’s wife got out fine.  But when Tom put his first foot into our canoe the shifting of his weight caused his canoe to begin drifting away and he found himself in the hilariously untenable position of trying to continue standing in two canoes moving away from each other. Unable to control the drift, he ended up doing the splits with hands flailing just before plunging head first into the lake – his feet still hooked over the side of each canoe. We all laughed until we cried at the slap-stick scene before us.

As comical as this scene is to imagine, I think many of us, quite unaware of it, might be in an equally untenable position – trying to straddle two different canoes that are moving in different directions. If you have ever been in a canoe, you know that trying to stand up in one canoe can be enough of a challenge. Trying to stand up in two canoes, as Tom discovered, is double trouble.

We have two Kingdoms – our spiritual kingdom and our material kingdom. And just as Tom found himself unsuccessfully straddling those two canoes, we too can find ourselves unsuccessfully attempting to straddle our two kingdoms – one foot planted in each even while they continue to drift apart – leaving us facing our own double trouble.

The Bible offers several metaphors to expose the untenable position of attempting to live a contradictory double life and the trouble that comes from trying to straddle our two competing “canoes.”

James 1:8 tells us that “a double-minded man (is) unstable in all his ways.” (Sounds like Tom in the two canoes, doesn’t it?) David declares in Psalm 119:113, “I hate the double-minded…” James adds in 4:8, “…purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

In Psalm 12:2 David provides a different metaphor – that of being double-hearted. In I Timothy 3:8 Paul describes those who are double-tongued. All these phrases describe the contradictory position of attempting to simultaneously and successfully keep one foot in our spiritual canoe and the other foot in our material canoe. In doing so, we are facing double trouble.

Jesus said it this way, “No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money” (Matthew 6:24).  Jesus is expressing the impossibility of trying to successfully straddle these two canoes.

Picture This
Here is how straddling these two canoes can functionally play out in our lives.  Our material possessions (time, talents, treasures, toys, etc.) are in our material canoe. And on occasion, we are asked, compelled, coerced or convicted to give some of our stuff from our material canoe to our spiritual canoe, to be used for spiritual purposes. When we transfer some of our material assets over to the spiritual canoe, it is recorded, reported and/or recognized.

Contrast this picture with an alternative picture.  We wholly and solely live in only one canoe – our spiritual canoe.  At our conversion we willingly transferred everything we were and everything we had – and I mean everything – from our material canoe to our spiritual canoe and we abandoned our material canoe.  We sang “All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give.” And really meant all – everything we have and everything we are is His.  We were all in the spiritual canoe. (Not that any of our material stuff was ever really ours in the first place, but we did finally acknowledge that we had wrongly confiscated it and we were now willingly returning it to the rightful Owner.) [See Psalms 24:1; 50:10-12.]

From that day forward it has no longer been a question of what will we transfer from our material canoe to our spiritual canoe. Everything we possess and everything we ever will possess is already in our spiritual canoe to be used for Kingdom purposes whenever and however it is needed by our sovereign King. Let me ask you to think back. Did you indeed surrender and transfer all the possessions in your material canoe now and forever into your spiritual canoe when you surrendered to Christ?  Did you really “surrender all?”

If the answer is yes, then your giving decisions are not really giving decisions.  They could more accurately be described as deployment decisions. The term giving carries with it the implication that we are taking something from our material canoe and “giving” it to our spiritual canoe to be used for spiritual purposes.  The term deployment, to the contrary, simply focuses on how these resources already in the spiritual canoe will be utilized to produce maximum impact and benefit for the King to whom these assets already belong.

If we attempt to live with one foot in our spiritual canoe and the other one in our material canoe, we will find ourselves, double-minded, double-hearted, double-tongued and with a severe case of double-vision.  We will indeed find ourselves continually living with double trouble.

Vision Test
It is interesting to note that right after Jesus tells us that we should not lay up treasures for ourselves in our material canoe, but we should instead lay up treasures in our spiritual canoe, and right before He tells us that we cannot simultaneously live in two different canoes (God and riches), He adds a powerful illustration in Matthew 6:22-23, “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

It is impossible for our two eyes to simultaneously focus on two different images.  Have you ever intentionally crossed your eyes? If you have you know that when you point your eyes in different directions, you can’t see anything clearly with either eye. We cannot focus on both our spiritual and our material canoes at the same time and if we do we will find, like my friend Tom, that we are in a compromising position that can never be maintained nor can it ever be totally fulfilling.

Where are You Standing?
Ask yourself, “Where am I standing right now? Am I trying to straddle these two different canoes, hoping to enjoy the best that both canoes have to offer?” If the answer is, “Yes,” then you are indeed in double trouble. May I suggest that the superior option for us, if we have not already done so, is to transfer everything we have into one canoe – our spiritual canoe. In doing so, something glorious will happen.  We will find ourselves becoming singled-minded, single-hearted, single-tongued and single-visioned. We will now be single-focused on what God wants us to do with what we are carrying of His material things in His spiritual canoe to be used for His divine purposes for His ultimate glory.  If we get into the right canoe, the spiritual canoe,  heading in the right direction with an eternal perspective in mind, we will experience what Paul describes in I Timothy 6:19 as “life indeed.” Let’s think: Double trouble or life indeed?  Not really a very difficult choice, is it? Let me encourage you, starting today, be all in your spiritual canoe!

Download PDF:  Double Trouble

© 2010 Stewardship Ministries | All Rights Reserved.

E. G. “Jay” Link is the President of Stewardship Ministries, a teaching, training, mentoring and content ministry working with churches and nonprofit leaders to equip them with the biblical knowledge and training resources needed to serve all ages and all economic levels of believers to effectively live their lives as good and faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted to them. He is the author of three books, “Spiritual Thoughts on Material Things: Thirty Days of Food for Thought,” “To Whom Much is Given: Navigating the Ten Life Dilemmas Affluent Christians Face” and “Family Wealth Counseling: Getting to the Heart of the Matter.”

Recently I received an email with the subject line, “You can live on less when you have more to live for.” This statement so struck me that I literally stopped my expeditious handling of all my emails and just pondered this profound and thought-provoking statement. “You can live on less when you have more to live for.”

This is not a statement describing an involuntary “belt-tightening” when economic circumstances force one to reduce a preferred lifestyle. It is talking about someone who chooses to voluntarily reduce his/her current lifestyle – a willing reduction.

Routinely, one of the primary objectives in planning for those who have surplus cash flow and excess wealth is to ensure that they are able to maintain their current lifestyle while doing all their inheritance and charitable planning. The key word here is “maintain.” In other words, “I am willing to be as charitable as possible with my “wealth” as long as it does not negatively impact my current lifestyle.

But this statement suggests that there might actually be some reasons why a person would want to reduce his rate of personal consumption (what we call the “burn rate”) to intentionally “live on less.”

So what might happen that would lead a person who could live on more – much more – to happily and willingly choose to live on less? This quote tells us. They have found something “more to live for” – something that is more valuable and more fulfilling to them than self-consumption.

As I pondered this statement, I asked myself, “What would it take for me or anyone else to willingly choose to live on less?” I concluded that in order to choose to live on less there would have to be a change in one or more of these three areas – (1.) one’s Perspective, (2.) one’s Priorities, and/or (3.) one’s Purpose.

A Change in Perspective

I travel a lot and in order to avoid feeling “claustrophobic” on the plane, I always try to get an aisle seat, but on occasion, I find myself “trapped” in a window seat. If there is any redemption to a window seat it is the view. I must confess that there is nothing that gives me a more realistic perspective of life than looking at the world from 35,000 feet.

Elevation does seem to give us a substantially different perspective on the “things of earth.” If we could pile up all of Bill Gate’s and Warren Buffet’s “stuff” in one place, it might not even be noticeable from the viewpoint of 35,000 feet. How much more insignificant are things if viewed from the footstool of Heaven. If a man were to see the trappings of his current lifestyle from the perspective of Heaven, he might just conclude there is undoubtedly something “more to live for” than the insignificant and temporary creature comforts of his current lifestyle.

Matthew 13:44-46 gives us a picture of what happens when someone’s perspective changes. Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”

Their perception of the value of their current possessions was totally redefined when they discovered something they perceived to be of far greater worth. There is an old riddle, “Do you know how to get a bone out of a dog’s mouth?” The answer is, “Offer him a bone with more meat on it.”

We will gladly “live on less” when our perspective is reoriented and reveals something “more to live for.” By downsizing, we would actually be upgrading!

A Change in Priorities

We all have a list of priorities. They are seldom put in writing and placed on the refrigerator, but we all have them stored away somewhere in the recesses of our consciousness. When given a choice between two options, our list of priorities kicks in and we choose the one highest on the list. This is true with our time and our treasures.

If your child has a ball game and you also have an opportunity to go play golf with your best friends, which you choose will demonstrate your priorities. If you had to choose between helping your child with their college expenses or buying a new car, your pre-set priorities will determine which choice you make. And, likewise, when given the choice between deploying your material resources for Kingdom purposes or buying a bigger home or the latest luxury car, your priorities will determine your choice.

We recently were hired by a younger couple who had done extremely well professionally and financially. The husband and wife came from nothing and as their businesses grew and their income skyrocketed, so did their lifestyle. They found themselves with an extravagant home, the newest and most expensive vehicles, and all the toys and trappings of a family who had “made it.”

But something happened to this couple along the way. God began to burden them with the call of the great commission and the need to get the gospel out while there was still time – before Jesus’ return. And quite apart from any influence by me, the husband had already made the decision that he wanted to become one of the greatest Christian philanthropists in history. In order to do this, they have already begun to cut their lifestyle consumption by multiples in order to have more available to deploy for Kingdom work. They are selling their “mansion” and moving into a modest home. They are buying cheaper used cars and intend to drive them until they cannot be driven anymore. His goal now is to build as many businesses as he can and grow them as much as he can so he can give as much as possible to the Kingdom during the rest of his life. Talk about a change in priorities!

For a man to choose to “live on less” it will require a radical reordering of existing priorities and these newly reordered priorities likely will reveal to him that there is much “more to live for.”

A Change in Purpose

In one of my slideshow presentations I ask the question, “What on earth am I doing with all this wealth?” I think it is an imminently practical and important question that each of us needs to answer. And how we answer that question will be reflected by what we choose to do with our material possessions. Did God give us excess material possessions to increase our lifestyle or to increase our Kingdom impact? Did our Father provide us with surplus resources so we could be “rich in lifestyle” or so we could be “rich in good deeds” (I Timothy 6:18)?

I can think of no more powerful example of this statement, “You can live on less when you have more to live for,” than what is vividly demonstrated in the life and death of Jesus himself. II Corinthians 8:9 tells us, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”

Jesus was the richest “man” in the universe and yet facing a divine purpose that collided with His exalted place in Heaven, He willingly “humbled Himself” and “made Himself nothing” (Philippians 2:6-8) and came to a dirty, sin-filled, remote planet to accomplish this divine purpose. He downsized from a throne in Heaven to a cross on Calvary.

Jesus was pursuing a purpose that required Him to radically reduce His preferred lifestyle in order to carry out a grand and noble purpose – the redemption of the entire human race.

I think none of us can escape the probing question that if Jesus, being rich, became poor for us so that we could be rich, what does He intend for us to do with those riches we have gained from His voluntary poverty? We need to soberly ponder this question.

For a man to choose to “live on less” it will require a radical reorientation of his life purpose that will reveal to him that there is indeed a greater life purpose that will give him even “more to live for.”

“You can live on less when you have more to live for.” Maybe each of us ought to humbly reconsider our current perspective, our current priorities, and our current purpose. It may be that if we honestly assess these three areas of our lives and humbly attempt to align them with the perspective, priorities, and purpose of Christ, we might just find to our surprise that we will be glad to “live on less” because in so doing we have found “more to live for” – much more.

Download PDF: Living on Less

© 2010 Stewardship Ministries | All Rights Reserved.

E. G. “Jay” Link, is the President of Stewardship Ministries, a teaching, training and mentoring ministry for professional advisors and ministry leaders to equip them to effectively serve believers who have accumulated surplus, material possessions. He is the author of three books, “Spiritual Thoughts on Material Things: Thirty Days of Food for Thought,” “To Whom Much is Given: Navigating the Ten Life Dilemmas Affluent Christians Face” and “Family Wealth Counseling: Getting to the Heart of the Matter.” Mr. Link may be reached via email at jlink@StewardshipMinistries.org

As Americans, we live in the richest nation in the world. So, the idea of being poor in spirit while being surrounded with degrees of material prosperity and opulence that relatively few have ever enjoyed, presents us with both an extraordinary challenge and opportunity that can either prove to be powerful or destructive depending on how we choose to respond to it. So, we need to ask, “How are we supposed to be poor in spirit while being rich in things?”

First, we must understand what the phrase poor in spirit means. This phrase is found in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3).  It is the first of the eight beatitudes that all begin with blessed, which means literally “happy, fortunate or blissful.”

We need to understand the actual meaning of these words. The word poor comes from the Greek word that means “to shrink, cower or cringe,” as beggars often did in that day.  Classical Greek used the word to refer to a person who was reduced to total destitution. One who was crouched in the corner begging, with one hand reaching out and the other covering his face in shame. This term is not just used to simply mean poor, but begging poor.  This is the same word that is used in Luke 16:20 to describe Lazarus.

The Greek word normally used for poverty is a different word entirely and is used to describe the poor widow Jesus observed giving her offering at the Temple.  She had very little, but she still had two small copper coins (Luke 21:2). The words “in spirit” focus not on material poverty, but on spiritual poverty.  In the same way that people are begging poor materially, here Jesus is describing begging poor spiritually.

Being poor in spirit comes when we recognize our total spiritual destitution and our complete dependence on God. There is no saving resource in us.  There is nothing that we can offer of value.  We are left begging poor and our only recourse is to reach out our sin-sick hands and beg God for mercy and grace.

The story of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:10-14 niv is the classic contrast between one who was rich in spirit and one who was poor in spirit.  Jesus said, “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

We do not like the idea of admitting that we are poor in spirit.  It is contrary to our human nature.  We fight against acknowledging it. A good example of this resistance to admit a poverty of spirit is found in the great hymn “At the Cross.”  It has a line in the first verse that says, “Should He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?”  David uses this term “worm” in one of his Messianic Psalms (22:6) niv “But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.” So, this term is a biblically inspired word describing Jesus on the cross.

However, the thought of being a worm is so repulsive in our modern culture that most current hymnals have changed the original words to the song from “for such a worm as I” to “for such a one as I” or “for sinners such as I.” We just do not like to admit that we are spiritual worms.  But in contrast to the holiness of God, a worm is a very accurate description of where we stand with God spiritually.

The joy of it all is that God so loved us worms that He sent His son to redeem us so we could experience a spiritual metamorphosis and be changed from a worm to a son.

So, being poor in spirit is not about how God views me or even how other people view me, it is about how I view me.

The best way to understand what poor in spirit means is to look at how men viewed their own spiritual “richness” when they came into the presence of God.

• Isaiah said, “Woe to me… I am a man of unclean lips”(Isaiah 6:5 nasb).
• Gideon said, “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house. (Judges 6:15 nasb).
• Jeremiah said, “Behold, I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth”(Jeremiah 1:6 nasb).
• Moses said, “Who am I” (Exodus 3:11 nasb).
• David said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?^”(II Samuel 7:18 esv).
• Peter said, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8 nkjv).
• Paul said, “I am the foremost of all (sinners)”(I Timothy 1:15 nasb).

Poverty of spirit is a personal awareness and recognition before God that there is nothing in us or about us that warrants any sense of self-sufficiency or spiritual “richness” that might be applied to our credit.  We are all at our core begging poor spiritually.

St. Francis de Sales wrote a book entitled, “Introduction to the Devout Life,” [trans. John K. Ryan (Garden City, NY: Doubleday Image Books, 1972, pp. 161-167)] that is a series of hypothetical letters to a new convert he calls Philothea (“Lover of God”).  In one of his letters de Sales addresses the issue of material possessions and the attitude a Christian who is poor in spirit ought to have towards them. His counsel is quite profound especially since it was written over 400 years ago.

“Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”  Accursed, then, are the rich in spirit for the misery of hell is their portion.

A man is rich in spirit if his mind is filled with riches or set on riches.  The kingfisher shapes its nest like an apple, leaving only a little opening at the top, builds it on the seashore, and makes it so solid and tight that although waves sweep over it the water cannot get inside.  Keeping always on the top of the waves, they remain surrounded by the sea and are on the sea, and yet are masters of it.

The Poverty of Spirit to be Observed in the Midst of Riches

Your heart, dear Philothea, must in like manner be open to heaven alone and impervious to riches and all other transitory things.  Whatever part of them you may possess, you must keep your heart free from the slightest affection for them.  Always keep it above them and while it may be surrounded by riches it remains apart from riches and master over them.  Do not allow this heavenly spirit to become captive to earthly goods.  Let it always remain superior to them and over them, not in them.

There is a difference between having poison and being poisoned.  Pharmacists keep almost every kind of poison in stock for use on various occasions, yet they are not themselves poisoned because they merely have it in their shops and not in their bodies.  So also you can possess riches without being poisoned by them if you merely keep them in your home and purse and not in your heart…

Unfortunately, Philothea, no one is ready ever to admit that he is avaricious (“has an insatiable greed for riches”).  Everyone denies having so base and mean a heart.  One man excuses himself on the score that he has to take care of his children – that this fact puts him under obligation to them, and that prudence requires that he be a man of property.  He never has too much; he always finds need for more.

The most avaricious men not only deny they are avaricious but even think in their conscience they are not such.  Avarice is a raging fever that makes itself all the harder to detect the more violent and burning it is.

Moses saw the sacred fire that burned but did not consume the bush.  On the contrary, avarice is a profane, unholy fire that both consumes and devours but does not consume an avaricious man…

How to Practice Genuine Poverty Although Really Rich

Dear Philothea, I would like to instill into your heart both wealth and poverty together, that is, great care and also great contempt for temporal things.

Have greater care than the worldly men do to make your property profitable and fruitful.  Princes’ gardeners are more careful and faithful in cultivating and beautifying the gardens in their charge than if they were their own property.  Why is this?  Undoubtedly it is because they see the gardens as the property of princes and kings to whom they want to make themselves acceptable by their services.

Philothea, our possessions are not our own.  God has given them to us to cultivate and He wants us to make them fruitful and profitable.  Hence we perform an acceptable service by taking good care of them.  It must be a greater and finer care than that which worldly men have for their property.  They labor only out of self-love and we must labor out of love of God…

Therefore let us exercise this gracious care of preserving and even of increasing our temporal goods whatever occasions present themselves as so far as our condition in life requires, for God desires us to do so out of love for Him  But be on guard so that self-love does not deceive you.  Sometimes it counterfeits the love of God so closely that one might say it is the same thing.  In order that it may not trick you and that care of temporal possessions may not degenerate to avarice…we must practice real poverty in the midst of all the goods and riches God has given us.

Frequently give up some of your property by giving it with a generous heart to the poor.  To give away what we have is to impoverish ourselves in proportion as we give, and the more we give the poorer we become… until such time as God shall restore it to us we remain the poorer in the amount we have given.  Oh, how holy and how rich is the poverty brought on by giving alms!

There are two “ditches” on each side of this narrow road of being poor in spirit while being rich in things that must be avoided.  One ditch to avoid is not letting our material possessions deceive us into becoming rich in spirit – thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought (Romans 12:3). The other ditch to avoid is not letting our lack of material possessions deceive us into concluding that having material possessions is somehow carnal and unspiritual – leading us to becoming rich in spirit because we have little.

The centerline on this road, simply stated, is to be spiritually poor while being materially generous. So, the more begging poor we become spiritually and the richer and more generous we become materially, the more useful we will become to His Majesty, the King.

Download PDF:  Being Poor in Spirit While Rich in Things

© 2010 Stewardship Ministries | All Rights Reserved.

E. G. “Jay” Link is the President of Stewardship Ministries, a teaching, training, mentoring and content ministry working with churches and nonprofit leaders to equip them with the biblical knowledge and training resources needed to serve all ages and all economic levels of believers to effectively live their lives as good and faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted to them. He is the author of three books, “Spiritual Thoughts on Material Things: Thirty Days of Food for Thought,” “To Whom Much is Given: Navigating the Ten Life Dilemmas Affluent Christians Face” and “Family Wealth Counseling: Getting to the Heart of the Matter.”

INTRODUCTION:

I want to talk to you about how you see yourself. But not in the way that has become so popular today. I do not want to talk to you about having a positive self–image or how you feel about yourself.

I want to look at this matter of worldview using a different focus and emphasis.   I want to talk to you about your perception of how you and the world relate to one another and how your particular worldview translates into everyday life specifically in the areas of stewardship of your time, your talents, and your treasures.

It is interesting that in life a worldview is really no where formally taught.  Unfortunately, for most people worldview is informally learned over a long period of time, constructed in much the same way that we put together a jig saw puzzle; one piece at a time until your “worldview” picture is complete and makes sense to you. And once your “worldview” picture is put together, your prevailing attitudes, your daily actions and your life goals will all be the direct result of the worldview you have assembled. I believe there are essentially three radically different worldviews – one of which is adopted by every human being on the face of this earth.

PROPOSITION: Which of these three worldviews we adopt will lead us to totally contrary lifestyles and totally different destinies.

I. THE FIRST WORLDVIEW IS THAT OF A “NATIVE”.

A. What is a “NATIVE?”

1.   Romans 12:2 “Be not conformed to this “WORLD”…

2. “Cosmos” –World in the New Testament is not referring to a place, it is referring to a group of people. The word Cosmos means, “Those who are neutral to or opposed to God.”

a. So, it is not just those people like the late Madeline Murray­-O’Hare, the ACLU, and many others who actively seek to dismantle Christianity and rid the     planet of any evidence of it that are included in this definition.

b.  It may also be that nice person down the road who is morally upright and friendly, but has no time or interest in God or the things of God.

c.  These people are what Paul calls the COSMOS. These people are the WORLD. These people are the NATIVES.

B. What is a “NATIVE’S” worldview?

1.  The Native says flatly, “This world is all that there is.”

2. That is why they want to…

a. save the whales

b. save the rain forest

c. save the darter snail

d. save the spotted owl.

e. save the environment

f. save our mother… the earth

3. They have slogans that reflect this worldview.

a.  “You only go around once in life, so grab all the gusto you can”

b. “America, love it or leave it!”

c. “The one who dies with the most toys – wins.”  They miss one very important point. The one who dies with the most toys – still dies.

4. The Native lives solely for this life and what it provides.

5.  The Native will “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow he will die.”

II.   THE SECOND WORLDVIEW IS THAT OF AN “ALIEN.”

A.   What is an “ALIEN?”  “A foreigner that has gone to a foreign country for a purpose.”

1. It could be he is leaving something unpleasant behind in his homeland or he is looking forward to an opportunity in the land to which he is going.
2. Aliens could be like the refugees from Kosovo, or the “boat people” from the Vietnam era.
3. Aliens could also be like the immigrants from Ireland and Europe who migrated to this great land looking for a better opportunity for themselves and their families.  This later purpose – aliens looking forward to an opportunity – best fits our topic here. An alien is a foreigner with a purpose.  He has come to the new land with a purpose – on a mission if you will.

B.  What is an “ALIEN’S” worldview?

1. Within the spiritual context we are discussing here, an alien says, “I have been sent on a specific mission by my homeland.”
2. The Mission: Planetary domination. Domination not by force and power like the great conquering nations of the past, but planetary domination through gentleness, meekness, love and service.
3. The Goal: Convert individual Natives from citizenship of this world to citizenship in the next.
4. Every aspect of an Alien’s life is directed towards accomplishing his Reigning Monarch’s stated mission. He walks and talks and eats and sleeps and plans and works and sacrifices to fulfill his assigned purpose. Nothing sidetracks him from his mission.
5. The old spy movies provide a sense of the risk, sacrifice and dedication of carrying out their mission – often their “mission impossible.”
6. And nothing in this world could entice an alien to forsake his allegiance to his homeland and its stated purpose and his commitment to fulfill that purpose.

C. There are literally dozens of Biblical examples of Aliens who refused to defect to the side of the Natives.

1. Moses – Hebrews 11:25-26

“By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin…”

2. Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego – Daniel 3: 16-18

“Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said, “0 Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this. If it be so, our God who we serve is able to deliver us out of your hand, 0 king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, 0 king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

3. Peter and John before the Sanhedrin – Acts 3:18-21

“And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.  But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard.”

4. In the days of the Roman Emperor Nero, a band of soldiers known as the Emperor’s Wrestlers served him. They were picked from the best and the bravest of the land, recruited from the great athletes of the Roman amphitheater.

In the great amphitheater they upheld the arms of the emperor against all challengers. Before each contest they stood before the emperor’s throne. Then through the courts of Rome rang the cry: “We, the wrestlers, wrestling for thee, O Emperor, to win for thee the victory and free thee, the victor’s crown.”

When the great Roman army was sent to fight in Gaul, no soldiers were braver or more loyal than this band of wrestlers led by their centurion Vespasian. But news reached Nero that many Roman soldiers had accepted the Christian faith. Therefore, this decree was dispatched to the centurion Vespasian; “If there be any among your soldiers who cling to the faith of the Christian, they must die!”

The decree was received in the dead of winter. The soldiers were camped on the shore of a frozen inland lake. It was with sinking heart that Vespasian, the centurion, read the emperor’s message.

Vespasian called the soldiers together and asked: “Are there any among you who cling to the faith of the Christian? If so, let him step forward!” Forty wrestlers instantly stepped forward two paces, respectfully saluted, and stood at attention. Vespasian paused. He had not expected so many, nor such select ones. “Until sundown I shall await your answer,” said Vespasian. Sundown came. Again the question was asked. Again the forty wrestlers stepped forward.

Vespasian pleaded with them long and earnestly without prevailing upon a single man to deny his Lord. Finally he said, “The decree of the emperor must be obeyed, but I am not willing that your comrades should shed your blood. I order you to march out upon the lake of ice, and I shall leave you there to the mercy of the elements.”

The forty wrestlers were stripped and then, falling into columns of four, marched toward the center of the lake of ice. As they marched they broke into the chant of the arena: “Forty wrestlers, wrestling for Thee, O Christ, to win for Thee the victory and from Thee, the victor’s crown!” Through the night Vespasian stood by his campfire and watched. As he waited through the long night, there came to him fainter and fainter the wrestlers’ song.

As morning drew near one figure, overcome by exposure, crept quietly toward the fire; in the extremity of his suffering he had renounced his Lord. Faintly but clearly from the darkness came the song: “Thirty-nine wrestlers, wrestling for Thee, O Christ, to win for Thee the victory and from Thee, the victor’s crown!”

Vespasian looked at the figure drawing close to the fire. Perhaps he saw eternal light shining there toward the center of the lake. Who can say? But off came his helmet and clothing, and he sprang upon the ice, crying, “Forty wrestlers, wrestling for Thee, O Christ, to win for Thee the victory and from Thee, the victor’s crown!”

III.  THE THIRD WORLD VIEW IS THAT OF A “TOURIST”.

A.  What is a “TOURIST?”

1. A Tourist is “an Alien without a purpose.” While in the foreign land he has little interest in or loyalty to his homeland from which he is a citizen.

2. His driving motivation in life is to see and enjoy all the sights and sounds and things that the foreign country in which he is visiting has to offer.

a. The Tourist will take whatever time is necessary to do it all.

b. The Tourist will spend whatever money is necessary to have it all.

3. A Tourist would openly admit to being an Alien if asked, but if carefully watched his lifestyle more closely parallels that of a Native.

B.  What is a “TOURIST’S” worldview?

1.  The Tourist’s life is made up of several, separate and distinct compartments.

a. a spiritual compartment

b. a job/business compartment

c. a social life compartment

d. a recreational compartment

e. a life goals compartment

f.  a financial compartment.

2. The Tourist freely gives God control of the spiritual compartment of his life. But, the Tourist thinks, “God has left me totally free to do as I please in all the other areas of my life as long as I’m good.” In other words, God doesn’t really care…

a.  . . . how I run my business or do my job as long as I am not an out and out crook or the worst of sluggards.

b.  . . .what I watch on TV as long as I don’t participate in the sinful activities I watch.

c. . . .how I spend my free time as long as I behave myself.

d.  . . .how I spend my money as long as I don’t gamble it away.  This financial area is where I have focused a major portion of my professional career and ministry efforts.  So, let me take just a minute or two to digress and say a little more about how a Tourist thinks about money.

(1.)  A Tourist is happy to acknowledge that God  owns everything. But this intellectual acknowledgement has no practical impact on the way he uses his financial resources.  He still makes all the decisions about how they will be used.

(2.) The reason that churches and ministries all over America struggles to survive financially is because Tourists spend about 99% of what they make on themselves and their preferred lifestyle.

(3.) In recent research it was revealed that if everyone who claims to be a born-again Christian would just give a tenth of their income, the Kingdom would have access to an additional $133 billion dollars annually.  Do you have any idea how much money that is?  Or, if you want to use one of the largest ministries in America, it would entirely fund an additional 1,300 Focus on the Family sized ministries annually.  Or, we could send an additional 3.3 million missionaries on to the field.

(4.) I personally believe that every dollar that is needed to completely underwrite the needs of every ministry in the world and fulfill the Great Commission in our lifetime is already in the hands of Kingdom citizens.  The great tragedy is that the overwhelming majority of it is in the hands of the Tourists who have a totally different mission focus than the King of Kings.

(5.) Let me give you an example of the perfect contrast between the worldview of a Tourist and the worldview of an Alien in this area of money.

Many years ago from a young, ten-year-old boy named Jimmy Mitchell. One Sunday before church, I was standing up at the pulpit getting my sermon notes ready and Jimmy came running into the auditorium. He ran up to me with a dollar bill in his hand and said, “Jay, look what I’ve got.” I said, “Jimmy, that’s great. Where did you get it?” He told me that after he mowed his yard, he decided to go ahead and mow old Mrs. Brown’s yard next door. “After I finished, she came out and gave me this dollar.”

He went on to say, “Jay, I’d like to give some of it to the Lord.” I replied, “Jimmy, I know the Lord would be so pleased that you would want to share some of that dollar with Him. How much do you think you would like to give?”

Even after three decades, I still remember what he said to me like it was yesterday. He looked down at the dollar and then gazed into my eyes, looked back down at the dollar, looked up again at me and said, “Do you think He would mind if I kept a dime?”

e. So, the Tourist reasons God really doesn’t care what I do as long as I don’t do anything to embarrass Him or His church.

f. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. But that is how a Tourist, of necessity, must structure his worldview to make any sense out of his Tourist lifestyle.

g.  To compare:

(1.) The Alien sings, “I surrender all (and understands those words to mean literally ALL/EVERYTHING)

(2.)  The Tourist sings, “I surrender all (and understands those words to mean everything in the spiritual compartment in my life (a little of his income, Sunday Morning attendance, etc.) In other words, he mentally sings, “I surrender all . . .of my spiritual compartment . . .” and he sings it with a totally clear conscience.

h. With this worldview, the Tourist is free to live the vast majority of his life exactly as he pleases with little input or interference from God which allows him to participate and enjoy all the things and activities of this world with no apparent sense of contradiction or feeling of inconsistency.

 C.  How do these varying worldviews feel about one another?

1.  The Native

a.   . . . loves and wants the things of the world (because, in his mind, that is all there is in life)

b.  . . . hates the Alien (because the Alien is always bent on changing both him and his culture forever). That is exactly what Jesus said would happen to us in John 15:19—20. “The world (‘Cosmos’ — meaning Natives) will hate you because it hated me.”

c.  . . . tolerates the Tourist (because, even though he is an Alien, he still anxiously and willingly consumes most all of the Natives’ goods and services. So it is “good business” to keep him around.)

2. The Alien

a.   . . . doesn’t care at all about the things of the world (and that’s why he so easily gives them away when others have need. They just don’t mean anything to him.)

b.   . . . loves the Native (because he is the object of his mission in this strange land.  He is called “to make disciples” of the Natives.) You see, the Alien loves people and simply uses things to help him demonstrate his love for people.

c. . . . grieves over the Tourist (because the Tourist is a fellow alien who has gotten so caught up in pursuing and enjoying what the world has to offer that he has either unconsciously forgotten or consciously forsaken his assigned mission in this foreign land.)

(1.) This desertion from the Alien ranks leaves fewer working Aliens to carry out their homeland’s mission.

(2.)  It also provides conflicting Alien role-models which confuses the Natives and makes winning them over to the Alien cause more difficult than ever.

3. The Tourist

a.   . . . loves and wants the things of the world (because he finds immense pleasure in them).

b. . . . doesn’t really care about the Natives .

(1.)  He is more concerned with the food at the restaurant than the Native waiter or waitress serving it.

(2.)  He is much more interested in the car on the showroom floor than the Native salesman who is selling it.

(3.)  He is more drawn to the videos in the library than the Native librarian who checks them out for him.

(4.)  He is more obsessed with winning the game than for the Natives on the other team who will lose.

(5.)  You see the contrast. The Alien loves people and uses things to benefit them. The Tourist, on the other hand, loves things and uses people to benefit himself.

c.   . . . feels threatened by the Alien (because the Alien stands as a constant reminder of their failure to carry out their assigned mission. And in an attempt to try and justify this failure they often label these Aliens as radicals and holy rollers.)

 D. You see the church has slowly and inexorably moved from being a counter-culture in our society to being just one of thousands of sub-cultures that make up our society.

1. What is a sub-culture? A Sub-Culture is a group of people who want to maintain the distinctives of their group while enjoying the benefits of the larger culture as a whole. They are not at all interested in changing the larger culture. They maintain the attitude that says, “If you don’t hassle us about how we are, we won’t hassle you about how you are!”

2. The Chinese people in China Town in San Francisco are not interested in making Denver Chinese. But, likewise, they don’t want Denver to force them to use American laundries.

3. The Polish section of Chicago is not interested in making Indianapolis Polish. But they don’t want Indy to insist they stop eating their Polish sausage.

4. But unlike these foreign cultures who brought their distinctives with them, we Christians, have, for the most part, simply modified the world’s culture and Christianized it and now claim it is different.

a.  Christian TV networks

b. Christian book and magazine publishers.

c. Christian softball leagues

d. Christian radio stations

e.  Christian Rock and Roll

f.  Christian Psychology

g. Christian Entertainers

h. You see, all we have done is merely take the existing worldly culture and its activities and modify them just enough to say they are different from the world while we leave the bulk of it the same. And if we would be totally honest with ourselves, the changes we have made are really more window dressing than reality.

5. What is a counter-culture? It is a group of people whose sole objective is to change the existing larger culture and replace it with the distinctives of their own counter-culture.

a. The teen rebellion of the 60’s is a perfect example of a counter-culture. They were not satisfied with just breaking from traditional culture and having free love, drugs, and anti-war sit-ins, they wanted to bring the whole cultural structure down and wanted everyone to adopt their counter-cultural lifestyles and values.  And to a very great extent, they succeeded.

b. But the best example of an effective counter­-culture at work is found right where you might expect to find it; the Handbook for Aliens.

(1.) Acts 17:2-6 Thessalonica – “And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a great multitude of the God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women. But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the market place, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and coming upon the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people. And when they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have upset the world have come here also…” I like the way the King James translates this last verse, “These that have turn the world upside—down are come hither also…”

(2.)  See Paul wasn’t coming to Thessalonica to “fit in” with the community and become a respectable citizen of their fair town. He certainly did not come to Thessalonica to see the sights. He was there for one rea­son and one reason alone; to change that city and culture for Christ. And in fol­lowing his commission he was “turning the world upside-down!” His counter-cultural revolution was working.

(3.)  And may I submit that the exact same counter-cultural revolution initiated by Paul would still work today if we had the courage to employ it.

6.  I think the Lord’s church has made a terrible error in judgment in recent years.

a. The error is thinking that the best way to get the world into the church is by trying to make the church as much like the world as we can (of course, we will always keep what we consider to be a safe distance between us) and in making it easier for the world to make the transition many more Natives will join our ranks.  The new byword among churches is now “user-friendly” and “seeker sensitive.”
b. The tragedy, unfortunately, is that, as one author has put it. “The church, in trying to lean over and relate to the world, has fallen in.”

c.  Now the greatest challenge that lies before us is not getting the world INTO church, it is getting the world OUT OF the church.

d.  Our churches are full of Tourists who profess to be Aliens but who still live the lifestyles of the Natives.

e.  And that, in my humble opinion, is why the church in America which should be shaking this country to its foundations for Christ is, sadly enough, having a relatively minor impact in the life and affairs of America. Our enemies certainly would never accuse us as was Paul of turning the Natives upside-down for Christ.

f.  We are not on this planet to just peacefully co­exist with the Natives; we are here to capture the planet for the Commander and Chief of our homeland. We are called to make Aliens out of the Natives!

g.  And to that end and that end alone we have been called.

CONCLUSION: This world is not a resort, it is a battlefield. It is not our homeland; it is a foreign military outpost. It is not the destination, it is a stopover.

I live in Indiana where the land is flat and much of the state is farming.  The two major crops in Indiana are corn and soybeans.  And like all good farmers, they periodically rotate their crops. It is interesting that in the year a farmer rotates from growing corn to soybeans inevitably you would see scattered through the soybean filed a few random corn stalks that had grown up from some kernels of corn that didn’t get harvested from the previous year’s crop.

Well, many years ago when I was first contemplating these life-changing truths I have been sharing with you this morning, my wife and my two oldest daughters, who were maybe seven and five at the time lived in the country and on both sides of our long drive back to our log cabin in the woods were two farm fields,  As we were pulling onto  our gravel drive one Sunday morning, I looked out at these two soybean fields and for the first time I really noticed the sporadic corn stalks growing up right in the middle of the soybeans.  It was as if God himself spoke to me at that very moment.  I was so overcome by emotion, I stopped the car with my eyes filling with tears and I looked at my wife and daughters and said, “This is what God wants us to be.  He wants us to be corn stalks in a soybean field.  We may live in a soybean world, but He has called us to stand out, to be different, to be corn stalks for Him – corn stalks in a soybean field.”

Many years ago a veteran missionary who had spent 40 years on the mission field was finally coming back to America, the land that he had left nearly a half century earlier. It just so happened that the ship that he was returning on also carried President Teddy Roosevelt from one of his many African hunting expeditions. As the ship arrived in New York Harbor, cheers began to swell as tens of thousands of Americans lined the pier to welcome their President back home. As Roosevelt left the pier so did the crowds and there standing all alone on the pier was the elderly, retiring missionary and there in his hand in one small, tattered bag was all his worldly possessions.

A tear rolled down his old, wrinkled cheek as he muttered to himself sadly, “The President had thousands here to welcome him back home. Not one person is here to welcome me back home.” Then that still, small voice that he had come to know and trust for so many years spoke softly and kindly to him, “Ben, it’s because your not home yet.”

“This world is not my home, I’m just ‘a passin’ through;

My treasures are laid out somewhere beyond the blue

The angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door;

And I can’t feel at home in this world any more.”

Oh, to long for our homeland like that! Oh, to be so weary from well doing that we yearn for that time of rest in my Fatherland. Oh, to be truly, solely, totally an Alien in this world for Christ – ALL our time, ALL our talents, and ALL our treasures devoted wholly to Him.

It would be my greatest desire for each of you here today that this very moment you would choose to either make a commitment or renew our commitment to being a Resident Alien that is dedicated to the mission that has been set before us – to be corn stalks in a soybean field.

No matter where you stand in your life right now, right this minute you are standing on holy ground.  The God of the universe is here this minute seeking those who love Him and those who are willing to deny themselves, (their career preferences, their financial preferences, their retirement preferences, and their lifestyle preferences) and take up their cross and follow Him even to the death to accomplish His mission.

Choose you this day which worldview you will choose, but I hope you will choose to say, “for me and my house, we will be Aliens.”

Download PDF: Resident Aliens

© 2010 Stewardship Ministries | All Rights Reserved.

E. G. “Jay” Link is the President of Stewardship Ministries, a teaching, training, mentoring and content ministry working with churches and nonprofit leaders to equip them with the biblical knowledge and training resources needed to serve all ages and all economic levels of believers to effectively live their lives as good and faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted to them. He is the author of three books, “Spiritual Thoughts on Material Things: Thirty Days of Food for Thought,” “To Whom Much is Given: Navigating the Ten Life Dilemmas Affluent Christians Face” and “Family Wealth Counseling: Getting to the Heart of the Matter.”

This sermon was presented by E. G. “Jay” Link at Kardia’s annual Iron Sharpening Iron Gathering at Vista Verde Ranch in Steam Boat Springs, CO in February, 2009.

One of the greatest challenges for all of us is the tension between immediate gratification and deferred gratification.  Over the past few generations there has been a substantial shift from a mindset of deferred gratification to almost an obsession with immediate gratification.  There are a number of factors that have contributed to this shift in focus; one of the most notable is the advent of easy credit.

In previous generations, families would scrimp and save in order to make a major purchase, but now with easy credit, people can get it now and pay for it later (with a healthy premium known as interest).  The media has also contributed greatly to this immediate gratification thinking, with its never ending enticements claiming that you will never be really happy until you buy this product.

Research confirms that savings among Americans is as low as it has ever been, primarily because after paying for all that has been bought on credit there is little, if anything, left over for saving for the future (deferred gratification).

This scenario is all too common among ordinary people, but is there also an inordinate emphasis on the “here and now” as opposed to the future in the lives of wealthy believers?  I think the answer is, “yes.”  For people of wealth it is not a new phenomenon.  Immediate gratification among the rich has been around for centuries.

One of the best examples of this struggle between immediate gratification and deferred gratification can be seen when a rich, young man approaches Jesus about what is necessary to get to Heaven.

“A ruler questioned Him, saying, ‘Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’  And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.  You know the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’  And he said, ‘All these things I have kept from my youth.’  When Jesus heard this, He said to him, ‘One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”  But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.” (Luke 18:18-23)

If I were to ask what Jesus is calling for this rich, young ruler to do, virtually everyone would say he is to  sell all his possessions, give the proceeds to the poor and follow Jesus – completely skipping over a major point in what He told the young man.  Look at the statement again.  “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

Do you see what we always seem to leave out “and you shall have treasure in heaven.”  Jesus is not asking this rich young ruler to go and sell all his possessions, give the proceeds to the poor and never see or enjoy them again.  Jesus is telling him to trade the temporary immediate gratification of his treasures for the deferred gratification of his treasures for all of eternity.  He wasn’t asking him to give up anything, He was just calling for him to send it on ahead to be enjoyed later, forever.  He was calling this young man to trade immediate gratification for deferred gratification.

The blessings of deferred gratification should not be new to us as Jesus teaches us this same principle in His Sermon on the Mount. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

When we give while we are “on this side of the grass,” we may be reducing our earthly net worth, but we are simultaneously increasing our eternal net worth – “you will have treasures in Heaven.”  These heavenly treasures, whatever exactly they are, will not fluctuate with the rise and fall of the stock market or the economy.  They will not be vulnerable to rising or falling interest rates or inflation.  We will not need to worry about getting ripped off or making a bad investment choice and maybe losing it all.  These heavenly investments that you have sent on ahead are guaranteed by the Creator of the universe – the One who is in control of all things.

Do those of us who are wealthy find ourselves more like the rich, young ruler with an extreme affection for things than we might like to admit?  Are we hesitant to sacrificially give today, because of what it might cost us today in reduced current circumstances, financial capacity or earthly security?  Do we walk away from opportunities that Jesus sets before us because we are not willing to send some of the earthly wealth that He has entrusted to us on ahead for our future enjoyment?

If we really believed that what we gave was perishable and temporary and would come back to us later and be imperishable and eternally ours, who in their right mind would not gladly trade temporary, immediate gratification for eternal, deferred gratification?

If we want to learn to live by faith, we need to learn to give by faith.  How much have you deposited into your heavenly investment account to date?  It will be waiting for you!

Download PDF:  Immediate Gratification vs. Deferred Gratification

© 2010 Stewardship Ministries | All Rights Reserved.

E. G. “Jay” Link is the President of Stewardship Ministries, a teaching, training, mentoring and content ministry working with churches and nonprofit leaders to equip them with the biblical knowledge and training resources needed to serve all ages and all economic levels of believers to effectively live their lives as good and faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted to them. He is the author of three books, “Spiritual Thoughts on Material Things: Thirty Days of Food for Thought,” “To Whom Much is Given: Navigating the Ten Life Dilemmas Affluent Christians Face” and “Family Wealth Counseling: Getting to the Heart of the Matter.”  

A very clever poem, I think we would all agree.  But if you really think about it, why should it surprise us that people with no faith in or acceptance of Jesus Christ as anything more than a mere historical figure have any interest in emphasizing and honoring His birth.  Jesus said in John 15:18, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.”  One common way in which the word “hate” can be understood in Scripture is the idea of “disregard.”  And if the world does not actually “hate” us because they hated Jesus, it is safe to say that at a minimum they certainly are disregarding us, now more than ever.  Should we be surprised or upset that the world has no regard for Jesus or His birth?

To be completely honest, I think removing references to Christ at Christmas is simply the world’s attempt to be more consistent in its unbelief.  And in that sense, maybe we should commend it for what it is trying to do.  The world years ago already did this with another of our most holy days, Easter.  When I was a kid in school, we had an Easter break.  It was changed many years ago to be called Spring Break.  We also had a Christmas break and the world now is simply doing the same thing it did many years ago with Easter, taking the religious emphasis away from Christmas by now calling it Winter Break.

For the world Christmas is nothing more than a holiday in which they like the good feelings and traditions of decorated trees, lights, presents, parties, family and fun.  I can’t say that I blame them.  I do too.  But the world categorically rejects the real origins for the holiday, the birth of the King of Kings.  Maybe we believers ought to start refusing to indulge in all the secular things of the season like having Christmas trees, lights, piles of presents, etc. and return to a singular holy focus on the spiritual meaning of the day.  Romans 12:2a reminds us, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  I think it would be fair to say that we believers as a whole participate in the non-religious aspects of Christmas far more than we do the religious ones.  Christmas for believers is indeed an odd mix of secular and sacred.

Think about it, of all the time that families invest in Christmas activities during the season, what percentage of these activities directly address the spiritual aspects of the season as opposed to the non-spiritual ones?  I asked this question regarding my own family practices and I must admit I am embarrassed to admit just how little time we actually spend focusing on the real reason for the season.   And I am an ordained minister.  Above all, I should have the least excuse.

But instead of getting upset and reacting by writing letters to heathen company presidents decrying the removal of the word Christmas from their stores, websites and promotional materials (which I have done on several occasions), maybe we ought to just fall on our knees and repent for our collective failure as the body of Christ to influence our culture to an extent that they even want to honor the One whose birth we celebrate.  Perhaps we ought to take the world’s effort to remove Christmas from this holiday season as an indictment against us instead of an insult to us.  I am mindful of what II Chronicles 7:14, “ If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”  Maybe we are the ones who are actually guilty of Christmas being removed from the holiday.  Jesus said in Matthew 5:13, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?  It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”  Sounds a bit like what is happening to us and our beloved Christmas, doesn’t it?

I think the most appropriate new symbol of what the world has done to our holy day is the new fad of an upside down Christmas tree.  Have you actually seen one yet?  They are in all the stores that sell trees.  This new tree is indeed appropriate in that this is exactly what the world has done to Christmas … turned it upside down.

When Paul and his missionary team were in Thessalonica, the unbelievers were angry with the message they were preaching (Jesus) and they stirred up a mob and dragged many of his team before the city authorities.  I love how the New King James words the mobs complaint in Acts 17:6, “These (men) who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”  The hostile crowd understood that these Christians were successfully leading a radical, cultural, counter-revolution that was transforming the world.   What this hostile crowd did not understand was that their world was already upside down because of sin.  What Paul and his team were actually trying to do was turn the world right side up again.

So, maybe for the world an upside down Christmas tree is indeed the perfect symbol of its view of this sacred and holy day in which God physically entered our sin-filled world to rescue us from ourselves – a day we joyfully and proudly call CHRISTmas.

Our compelling objective (See Matthew 28:18-20) is to help these poor, confused, lost, helpless, blind sinners one-by-one get their present worlds turned right side up; like someone once did for us.  And we are not going to accomplish that directive by simply objecting to their removal of our word Christmas from this season, but by pointing them to the gift of Christ.  That is what will light up their lives and put their Christmas tree pointing in the right direction – heavenward towards the One who came to love us back to Him.

Instead of being reactive this Christmas, let’s become proactive.  Instead of complaining that the world is taking something away from us, let’s concentrate on giving something to it.  Let’s toss the chaos of Christmas and make the time to share with our fellow creatures the “Peace on Earth” that we have found in “Christ, the newborn King”.

Let’s make sure our Christmas trees are right side up and the most important gift we intend to give this season is not wrapped in brightly colored paper lying under a tree, but is wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.

Download PDF:  Upside Down or Right Side Up

© 2010 Stewardship Ministries | All Rights Reserved.

E. G. “Jay” Link is the President of Stewardship Ministries, a teaching, training, mentoring and content ministry working with churches and nonprofit leaders to equip them with the biblical knowledge and training resources needed to serve all ages and all economic levels of believers to effectively live their lives as good and faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted to them. He is the author of three books, “Spiritual Thoughts on Material Things: Thirty Days of Food for Thought,” “To Whom Much is Given: Navigating the Ten Life Dilemmas Affluent Christians Face” and “Family Wealth Counseling: Getting to the Heart of the Matter.”

Hot Sun.  Salty air.  Rhythmic waves.

A little boy is on the beach.  On his knees he scoops and packs the sand with plastic shovels into a bright red bucket.  Then he upends the bucket on the surface and lifts it.  And, to the delight of the little architect, a castle tower is created.

All afternoon he will work.  Spooning out the mote.  Packing the walls.  Bottle tops will be sentries.  Popsicle sticks will be bridges.  A sandcastle will be built.

Big city.  Busy streets.  Rumbling traffic.

A man is in his office.  At his desk he shuffles papers into stacks and delegates assignments.  He cradles the phone on his shoulder and punches the keyboard with his fingers.  Numbers are juggled contracts are signed and, much to the delight of the man, a profit is made.

All his life he will work.  Formulating the plans.  Forecasting the future.  Annuities will be sentries.  Capital gains will be bridges. An empire will be built.

Two builders of two castles.  They have much in common.  They shape granules into grandeurs.  They see nothing and make something.  They are diligent and determined.  And for both the tide will rise and the end will come.  Yet, that is where the similarities cease.  For the boy sees the end while the man ignores it.

Watch the boy as the dusk approaches.  Each wave slaps an inch closer to his creation.  Every crest crashes closer than the one before.

But the boy doesn’t panic.  He is not surprised.  All day the pounding waves have reminded him that the end is inevitable.  He knows the secret of the surging.  Soon they will come and take his castle into the deep.

The man, however, doesn’t know the secret.  He should.  He, like the boy, lives surrounded by rhythmic reminders.  Days come and go.  Seasons ebb and flow.  Every sunrise which becomes a sunset whispers the secret, “Time will take your castles.”

So, one is prepared and one isn’t.  One is peaceful while the other panics.

As the waves near, the wise child jumps to his feet and begins to clap.  There is no sorrow.  No fear.  No regret.  He knew this would happen.  He is not surprised.  And when the great breaker crashes into his castle and his masterpiece is sucked into the sea, he smiles.  He smiles, picks up his tools, takes his father’s hand, and goes home.

The grown-up, however, is not so wise.  As the wave of years collapses on his castle he is terrified.  He hovers over the sandy monument to protect it.  He blocks the waves from the walls he has made.  Saltwater soaked and shivering he snarls at the incoming tide.

“It is my castle,” he defies.

The ocean need not respond.  Both know to whom the sand belongs.

Finally the cliff of water mounts high above the man and his little empire.  For just a moment he is shadowed by the wall of water . . . then it crashes.  His tiny towers of triumph crumble and disperse and he is left on his knees . . . clutching muddy handfuls of yesterday.

If only he had known.  If only he had listened.  If only. . . .  But he, like most, never listens.

. . . These [people] aren’t cruel.  They aren’t rebellious or angry at God.

But they are blind.  They don’t see the setting sun.  And they are deaf.  They don’t hear the pounding waves.

. . . I was reminded of this not long ago when I boarded a plane.  I walked down the aisle, found my seat, and sat down next to a strange sight.

The man seated next to me was in a robe and slippers.  He was dressed for the living room, not for the journey.  His seat was odd, too.  Whereas my seat was the cloth type you normally see, his was
fine leather.

“Imported,” he said, when he noticed I was looking.  “Bought it in Argentina and put it on myself.”

Before I could speak he pointed to some inlaid stones in the armrest.  “The rubies I purchased in Africa.  They cost me a fortune.”

That was only the beginning.  His fold-down table was of mahogany.  There was a portable TV installed next to the window.  A tiny ceiling fan and globed light hung above us.  I had never seen anything like it.

My question was the obvious one, “Why did you spend so much time and expense on an airline seat?”

“I live here,” he explained.  “I make my home on this plane.”

“You never get off?”

“Never!  How could I deboard and leave such comfort?”

Incredible.  The man made a home out of a mode of transportation.  He made a residence out of a journey.  Hard to believe?  You think I’m stretching the truth?  Well, maybe I haven’t seen such foolishness in a plane, but I have in life.  And so have you.

You’ve seen people treat this world like it was a permanent home.  It’s not.  You’ve seen people pour time and energy into life like it will last forever.  It won’t.  You’ve seen people so proud of what they have done, that they hope they will never have to leave – they will.

We all will.  We are in transit.  Someday the plane will stop and the de-boarding will begin.

Wise are those who are ready when the pilot says to get off.

I don’t know much, but I do know how to travel.  Carry little.  Eat light.  Take a nap.  And get off when you reach the city.

And I don’t know much about sandcastles.  But children do.  Watch them and learn.  Go ahead and build, but build with a child’s heart.  When the sun
sets and the tides take – applaud.  Salute the process of life, take your father’s hand, and go home.

(And the Angels Were Silent, Chapter 17, Max Lucado, Questar Publications, Inc, 1992)

Download PDF: Sand Castles

© 2010 Stewardship Ministries | All Rights Reserved.

E. G. “Jay” Link is the President of Stewardship Ministries, a teaching, training, mentoring and content ministry working with churches and nonprofit leaders to equip them with the biblical knowledge and training resources needed to serve all ages and all economic levels of believers to effectively live their lives as good and faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted to them. He is the author of three books, “Spiritual Thoughts on Material Things: Thirty Days of Food for Thought,” “To Whom Much is Given: Navigating the Ten Life Dilemmas Affluent Christians Face” and “Family Wealth Counseling: Getting to the Heart of the Matter.”