The Wealthy Christian

I used to be rich. I mean, relatively speaking.

For most of my married life, we lived in nice houses – some of them big, very nice houses. We honestly never really wanted for anything. That was mostly due to my ex-husband’s good income (which he worked hard for, to his credit) and to the fact that we both were raised not to waste money.

I had a few friends during my years of plenty who had real attitudes toward the “greedy, rich people” out there. They were always careful to say that they didn’t include me in that crowd, but once in a while, a comment would slip that would hurt. Yes, I’m financially secure, I thought, but I’m not one of THOSE rich people.

And, well . . . I’m certainly not rich now.

I’ve had some lovely social events in the last couple months with some good friends, and a lot of them have been talking about the traveling they’ve done this summer or plan to do. And people, please understand: I don’t begrudge them those trips at all! I’m glad they get to have those experiences! But I found myself listening to their fabulous adventures on other continents and thinking, "Wow – I’m just trying to figure out how I’m going to manage another visit to Missouri to see my kids before the year is over."

And remember when I wrote about that Rich Kids Go Skint show? I’ve stopped watching that now. I can’t stomach it. I look at this 20-year-old buying a $10,000 Birkin handbag to add to his expensive handbag collection and think, "That one purse would have paid for my health insurance and ALL of my out-of-pocket medical expenses last year."

And that’s when I start to understand the anger my friends felt. And I’m not happy about that.

Did y’all see Schindler’s List?  Wow. It was a powerful movie in so many ways, of course. But the scene that reverberates most in my mind is at the end when he’s leaving the factory where he has saved the lives of 1100 Jews. “I could have gotten more,” he says. “I threw away so much money. . . This car – ten people right there. . . This pen – two people. This is gold – two more people. . . I could have got one more person, and I didn’t.” And he breaks down in sobs.

We admire people who sacrifice their wealth and their comfort and their personal safety to help those in need. But I suspect our admiration is greater because it’s such a rare thing to witness.

And that's the problem, friends. With the number of self-proclaiming Christ-followers in the world (and many of them relatively rich), it shouldn’t be rare. That should be the norm for those of us who claim as Lord the one who said we can’t serve both God and money – and who told us to store up treasures in heaven rather than on earth.

I feel your pain, Oskar. I wish I'd done more. I wish I could do more now.

Oh, friends, pray for God’s people to break their attachment to the idol of wealth. That might be the greatest testimony the world could ever see.