129: Money. Money. Money.
Hello and welcome to The Hope Podcast. I’m Aneel Aranha. Today we are going to talk about how you can buy many things with money but you can’t buy happiness.
You've probably heard the saying, "Money can't buy happiness." Like many sayings, it has become very clichéd. However, it is true. Money can buy many things (and that's not a bad thing), but it can't buy the best things in life like peace and love and, of course, happiness.
When I first came to the country I now live in, my wife and I had jobs with small salaries. We leased a room in somebody's apartment and were confined to that space whenever we were home, which wasn't much because we had long work hours. Life was tough, especially with a one-year-old son thrown into the mix, but we were happy.
Then things started looking up. We got better jobs, and as the bank balance swelled, we became truly "upwardly mobile" as we began moving into successively larger living spaces, furnishing them with more and more luxuries. But although we gained a lot of things, we lost a lot of things too. Looking back, it was an extremely poor trade-off. We have since returned to a simpler but happier life.
We need money — let's not be absurd here to think we can do without it — but we don't need tons of it (unless we are the kind of people who share it). Otherwise, the more money we have, the more we tend to own. That means more cleaning, more maintenance, more stress, more fear (we might lose it all!), and more headaches! Then, because the more we have, the more we want, we work long hours, giving us less time to spend with family and friends — or even ourselves!
But the greatest tragedy is that we might end up losing eternal life. Unfortunately, when we are rich, eternal life doesn't concern us — we are too busy "living it up" — but there will come a day of accounting when Jesus' words that "blessed are the poor" will come true, simply because their poverty ensured they didn't lose sight of God.
You *know* all this to be true. This reflection is just a reminder to look at money from the proper perspective, so you don't make the mistake rich people make. Use money as a tool; don't make it a god. A man cannot serve two masters, remember? (see Matthew 6:24). And if you can remember that the money *comes* from God and are suitably grateful to him for it — this means you tithe! — you should be ok.
May the Spirit be with you.