crazy money

This week I was all set to write about Beatitude Number Two. But I’m going to change plans for a good reason. Money. I don’t know about you, but it is a subject that can consume me. Over the years, my obsessions about money have subsided, but the worry that we won’t have enough can still be a thorn in my flesh. 

This past weekend, I went to the emergency room and then stayed overnight in the hospital. I am fine, which is the good news. The bad news? I’ve started to worry about money again. It has been eight years since I’ve brought home a paycheck. My kids, managing my house, that’s been my job. And though I love it and feel hugely blessed to have been able to do it, I worry. 

Thankfully, we haven’t been in want for anything. Lately though, we’ve had some major expenses and, now this, a visit to the emergency room, a night spent in the hospital. All I can think about is how are we going to be able to pay for everything.

I know I’m preaching to the choir, and that many of you face even more serious financial crises, so I guess this week, I’m writing as much for you as for myself.

You know what I find ironic. In God We Trust. Yup, that one simple caption printed on each and every American Dollar. Here’s why I think it’s ironic. Every time I pull a bill out of my wallet, I read that familiar heading. Does it give me comfort, relief, encouragement? Nope, because deep down inside it’s not God in whom I trust, it’s the money—that simple piece of paper that really has no power to save me. 

In Matthew 6:24 Jesus teaches an important lesson about money. 

No one can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money. (NIV) 

Let’s go back to that emergency room visit. As I lay in that hospital bed, I clung to the verse above as well as an obscure little verse in Psalm 50. 

Psalm 50:10 For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills. (NLT)

Seems like a strange verse to cleave to in the midst of the temptation to fret, but here’s why I thought of it. It seems to me that if God owns every animal in the forest and the cattle on a thousand hills, His arm is not too short to save me. 

I pray this strange verse reaches out and gives you the hope it did me. Whatever financial crisis you face; medical bills piling up, a mortgage you can’t afford, debt up to your eyeballs, trust in the One who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He cares dear ones, He cares. 

And next time you pull out a bill--be it a ten, twenty, hundred, whatever, look at the caption, ‘In God We Trust.’ Then do some soul-searching and figure out what or whom you really do trust in--a simple piece of paper or the Lord of all creation. Because, dear ones, it can't be both.