Today's post will be short. It has been a long, tiring week for me. Getting up at 5:45am and going to bed at 12:30am has been wearing me thin. I love the comments I've been getting from people and would love to hear from you, too!
Anyone who interacts with the contents of this blog is so much of an encouragement to me!
Let's continue!
Read Luke 16:1-15 (find it here)
Two of the main characteristics that Jesus confronts time and time again is arrogance and greed. Jesus has been pounding on humility and avoiding hypocrisy, but over the next two posts Jesus gives two parables regarding rich men.
The story of the shrewd manager is not an easy parable to just read and interpret, in my opinion. The word 'shrewd' is very, very misleading to me. I usually think of someone being harsh and deceptive but this story also paints the manager as being clever and crafty, which aren't always negative characteristics.
The rich man is about to fire the manager for inefficient or sloppy work. We all can be guilty of that from time to time, right? The manager is told to get everything that he was supposed to do DONE.
The manager decides to kill two birds with one stone. There's no hope of keeping his job so he calls in all the people who owe his employer money and gives them a discount. These people who owe money, owe a HUGE chunk of change! He gives the discounts in order to gain a good reputation with the debtors. He believes that these people will look after him, like he did for them, when he looses his job.
The rich man actually is impressed with his manager's trickery. He couldn't be that upset because he got money from the debts that were owed to him.
Jesus says that this is what "average" people do; bend the rules just to get people to like you. But that isn't what "children of light" do. Light, in this instance, refers to righteousness or more specifically someone who is completely transparent and hides nothing.
Jesus says, "Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home." (v. 9) So take this parable and Jesus' lesson and put them together.
Take the material resources you have and use them to benefit and influence others for good. If you do so, you'll never be abandoned, never be alone. Also, if you are faithful with little money, you will be faithful with more. The opposite is true, too. If you're not faithful with material things, no one is going to trust you with their stuff, either.
But if your world circulates around your money benefiting you and not others it proves only one thing; you are a slave to money, God is not your master. Literally, cash rules everything around you. (Didn't think you would get a Wu Tang reference, did ya?)
God hates all the material crap of the world because materialism benefits only the rich! And the more people are greedy, the less the poorest of the world are cared for. It is sad when "average" people become materialistic. The stereotype of a rich, tight hoarder is thought to be normal, when it never was meant to be that way.
Questions
1.) How do you spend your money? For example, do you give regularly to a church or a non-profit that really matters to you? If not, why?
2.) How would the USA or your specific city be a different place if everyone was generous with their money?
Here's a challenge for all of you out there. Next time you're out and about, ask God to give you an opportunity to give your money away (I know it sounds nuts). Maybe that will be when you're in the drive-thru at a fast food place (pay for the person behind you). Maybe you'll see a needy person on the corner (buy that person a jacket or meal).
Do whatever you have to do to train yourself to give. It truly is one of the best feelings in the world. Break the bonds of materialism. Money was never meant to be your god!
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