Money

An interesting series of events and readings of late . . .

First, a few weeks ago, I met a woman named Paula on the DC Metro. She was upset and I helped her out a bit then, and have a couple of times since with a place to stay and with some food. I found out later that she was a plaintiff in a rather large lawsuit with a lot of other women, which settled with a hospital in our area. She is due something like $7.5 million, which I believe she is to begin to receive soon. But until then, she needed some help. That's all fine, but here's why I bring her up: the pastor of the church she was attending said to her that God told him that she should give him (or his church) $1 million. . . . She's not going to that church anymore.

In the readings for Morning Prayer today, money was front and center. Balak, the king of Moab, tried to get Balaam to curse Israel for him and promised him great riches to do so. But Balaam replied: "Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the Lord my God to do less or more." Then, right after that, we read of Judas agreeing to betray Jesus for money . . .

Finally, in the adult Bible Class yesterday, this from Proverbs:

Blessed is the one who finds wisdom [Christ],
    and the one who gets understanding,
for the gain from her is better than gain from silver
    and her profit better than gold.
She is more precious than jewels,
    and nothing you desire can compare with her (Prov 3:13-15).

How often money steals our hearts and becomes a false god. I am grateful that among the myriad temptations that I face each day, money is not one of them. The Lord has provided me and my family with all that we need - sometimes more and sometimes less - but we've always been in a position where we can be generous with our money and give. And I like doing so. My wife handles the finances for us and tells me when to slow down and cool it. But she's the same way. I remember Luther and Katie being like that as well.

So why do I bring this all up? I don't know - just because it was interesting how those four things all came together over the past couple of days.