Reading
“Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it, but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.”
1 Timothy 6:6-10
Reflection
I don’t think of myself as rich, but I have a feeling that 20-year-old Brandon would think I have way more than enough. But at 41, I have two kids, a mortgage, health insurance premiums to pay, and the pressure to save for retirement, and I don’t feel like I have way more than enough!
It’s easy for me to look at people with more disposable income than me and to assume that their spending is frivolous while mine is responsible. To some people, though (including my past self!), my spending might look frivolous. The things that used to seem like luxuries slowly begin to feel like necessities. I begin to feel like I can’t live without them, even if I did in fact live most of my life without them.
This is magnified by the fact that there are forces in our society determined to make us think we will only be happy if we buy their product. It’s only when we step back from those forces that we begin to see how little we actually need.
Paul writes, “if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these” (I wonder if Paul left out shelter because he was a tent maker). It’s tempting for me to add just a few more necessities to Paul’s list—a home, medical care, insurance, utilities, two cars, gas, school supplies, phones, a TV, uniforms and equipment for my kids’ extracurricular activities, comfortable running shoes… None of these feels frivolous, but the line separating “necessity” from “nice-to-have” gets blurry rather quickly.
We may not feel like we’re spending money wastefully, but most of us are spending money on things we don’t really need, and we often feel stretched as a result. While there is much we can buy that makes navigating daily life easier and more comfortable, there is little that we actually need. As the Bible tells us, we have the necessities—like food, clothing, shelter, and love—we can be content. And if we can learn to be content with less, we can become free of the hold our stuff has on us, which sets us free to depend completely on God. Then we will be rich, indeed.
Prayer
God of abundance,
you have blessed us with so much,
yet often we feel like we need
just a little bit more.
Teach us to be content with what we have
so that we can be set free—
free to be joyful,
free to be generous, and
free to trust you completely.
Amen.
