Speak friend and enter.

Time and Money

If ever there were a couple of touchy subjects, these are them. And I should warn you, my views on these subjects are rather extreme. It seems to me, that whenever time or money become involved there is in me, and in many people I think, a great temptation to turn the soul off and become little human calculators. When we do that, really, I think we miss the point, and miss God entirely. We are off in a land of cold logic trying to carry the nine and divide by our shoe size and figure out how much is just enough. When really, all of it isn’t enough. We can’t pay off God; the very idea is ridiculous. Nor does God keep timecards on all of us, you can’t punch in when you start serving him and punch out when you’re ready to go back to life, any more than you can collect your “wage” of blessings on Friday.

We get hung up on amounts, and percentages and forget that it is really just about love. Consider the story of the poor widow in Mark 12:41-44 and Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees in Matthew 23:23. It seems pretty clear to me that He is not interested in a legalistic view of money, the woman who gave practically nothing received great praise, while those who could not see beyond their tally sheets receive only criticism. Our time is much the same.

Speaking for myself, the main temptation of a legalistic view of time and money is that it makes a great excuse. Once I’ve worked out my formula ((wage + age) / (shoe size + the weight of ten pounds of feathers))? for how much time and money to give I never have to think about it. If any nagging doubts or special needs surface I can confidently tell them that I’ve already given this or that so obviously I’m in the clear. The problem of course is that there is no love in there anywhere. That kind of giving only shows my devotion to legalism, not my devotion to God.

So… am I saying that its bad to have a set amount you give from each paycheck? No, I’m not. I’m also not saying that you should give all your money to the church, because God really doesn’t ask that of many people. Just talk to God about it, give of your time and money as you feel you should, don’t worry so much about formulas and your shoe size. Personally I try to make the check out for some number that amuses me and makes the person counting wonder what I was thinking. Give as you feel led, and God will bless you for it. For me, he’s taken away the constant obsession and worry, not that I always have plenty, but I always know that it will work out.

Oh… and don’t use that formula, its silly.

Sorry about the complete lack of posting, things have just been really busy. Getting settled into the house and all the holidays, and to say that work has "picked up" is a gross understatement, beside it already being "up" to begin with. But anyway, enough complaining. I plan to start posting more, I've started writing devotionals for church and I think I'll start posting them here. If I'm taking the time to write them I might as well make as many people suffer through exposure as possible :-p

-Paul