We’ve all heard that MONEY can’t buy happiness, that it can’t buy love, and that you can’t measure true wealth with it. While I believe all of these notions are true, I do know what the Bible says about money, and it may shock you – Money is the answer for everything. Yes, you read that correctly! In Ecclesiastes, an inspired meditation on the meaning of life, the Preacher writes:
‘A feast is made for laughter,
and wine makes life merry,
but money is the answer for everything’
~ Ref: The Bible;Ecclesiastes 10:19 (NIV)
Clearly, money isn’t everything. For me, it’s not even in the top four- miles behind family, health, friends and spiritual values. An abundance of these four life dimensions constitute true wealth. I once read a story of Paul J. Getty- the richest person of his time-used to receive letters from his not rich brother that he started with that read; ‘To the richest man in the world from the wealthiest.’
I agree, one can be wealthy without being rich. Still a lot of ‘good’ people dismiss the concept of financial success as an ‘unworthy’ goal – perhaps even morally suspect. And with a blog post title like Money Is The Answer For Everything, will certainly raise a few eyebrows.
I am of the belief that Money, by itself, is neither good nor bad – it’s neutral. Money is an energy tool. Like a hammer, money can be used to build or to destroy. I strongly think that understanding money – how to ethically make it, keep it and share it – adds a positive dimension to wealth. Our lives, our relationships and our happiness improve when we have enough money. Money properly earned and combined with enlightened intentions makes the world a better place.
Money isn’t real. Money is a symbol of wealth and the beginning of the experiencing of wealth, so that we may know how wealth tastes like experientially. Money has two uses. One is to allow us to exchange our gifts. The other is to allow us to experience wealth. Through this experience, we are able to increase our wealth consciousness and love it even more.
My guess is that most have heard or read that ‘the love of money is the root of all evil’ (1Timothy 6:10), and certainly greed for and the idolatry of material possessions can easily pollute our motives and corrupt our hearts. However, as we plunge into thinking through the role that money and material means play in how we position ourselves for success. You may want to take a minute to ponder through in very practical ways, what money can buy us and what it cannot.
By now, you are wondering, if the love of money is the root of all evil and so many passages of the bible warn against being seduced by the power of money, then how can it be the answer for everything? But think about it – the Preacher is not saying that money will make you happy or fulfill you or bring you peace and contentment. He simply says that it’s the answer to everything; any ‘thing’ that can be had, money can provide you.
My understanding of this verse is that money answers everything because it offers us options – it always has and it always will. If you reading this from an office somewhere, money clearly determined how you got there, when you’ll be leaving and where you live. If you don’t have much of it, then you probably got here by a matatu – public transport, will leave when they (matatus) are available to leave, and are forced to live in your current domicile with very limited options. You do the best you can with what you’ve got.
Money answers everything because usually the more you have it, the more options become available. I once heard one of my mentors say on TV that, ‘If you getting ready to fly from one zone to the next, you might be interested to know that the nonrefundable supersaver (just another word for Cheap) tickets in economy class includes blackouts dates, limiting when you can travel and how you will get to your destination. If you’re fortunate, then your knees won’t extend too far into the seat in front of you and your elbows won’t be too confined to allow you to enjoy the salted peanuts.
But if you flying First Class, paying premium price, you get to choose your day and time of flight, whether you will look out the window or stretch alongside the aisle. You will get to choose what you have to eat and drink during the flight, the beef or the chicken, the white wine or red, the cheesecake or fruit salad or pudding as my mother loves to call it. You will be given hot towels with which to refresh yourself and asked to choose your reading resource preference, whether you want a magazine, a newspaper, a business journal.
Money can’t make you happy, nor can its pursuits, or the things you can buy with it. But the freedom of movement it provides, the ease and convenience, and the possibilities of positioning do indeed solve most, if not all of life’s physical dilemmas.
Anthony Robbins, the world’s leading expert on the psychology of peak performance and human potential also known as ‘America’s results coach’ and a man I consider my mentor, once said in one of his audio programs; ‘it’s fun and exciting to arrive at your problem in a limousine’. I has to pause and ponder over it.
Bishop TD Jakes says; ‘having solutions to problems provides security. Having security and options allow you to focus on other matters and enjoy the non-material aspects of your life.’
If you’re not worried about how you’ll pay the bills if you go back to school for another degree, then you assess the decision differently than if you know that you’ll have to work while you go to school part time. Not worrying about what will happen if your car breaks down because you know that you can afford to have it repaired can be a luxury more precious than a chauffeured limo. Not having to run up your credit – card debt to purchase gifts to your loved ones during holiday season can be the best gift of all.
Now, there is nothing wrong with acknowledging that life is easier and more comfortable if you have the financial resources to grease the wheels of daily life. However, it’s tempting to make the quality of our life conditional upon this fact and to view ourselves as totally without choices or resources if we don’t have as much money as we’d like.
There’s nothing wrong with having incentive, wanting to enjoy life more, relishing the fruits of your labor. Yet so many people, even when they know intellectually that money can’t provide what they long for; still strive to succeed in a way that is measured only by their bank accounts. They aren’t enjoying what they have because it’s never enough. In Ecclesiastes again, the preacher observes:
”Whoever loves money never has money enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.”
~ Ref: Bible; Ecclesiastes 5:10 (NIV)
I think the best, if not the only way to protect yourself from getting trapped in a perpetual cycle of never enough is to always to be grateful and mindful of what you have.
I hope you found this article inspiring and more enlightening on the way you think about and handle money.
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