Thought #4: Money doesn’t buy happiness…or does it?

Money typically causes more problems than anything else, but unfortunately, it’s one of the necessary evils in life. Money is necessary to live, and does provide opportunity. Because we must work for money, we tend to become selfish with it. We do need to be responsible, planning for our future and that of our family, yada, yada, yada…

But the statement “money will never buy happiness” is so true. Just like the “stuff” I referred to in my last post, when money was the most plentiful in my family, my happiness was the least. You truly cannot buy your way out of depression.

But there is one way that money can buy happiness…when  you give it away.

I’ve tithed at church pretty much my entire life, and that gave me a foundation. I was raised knowing that 10% of everything I made belonged to God. It never felt like a sacrifice because it was something I always did. As I’ve gotten older and made more money, 10% seemed like a little bigger sacrifice. But the sacrifice part just made giving it away that much better.

There always has been and there always will be the people in church who bicker about where money is going. People who choose not to tithe because they do not “approve” of the finance committee’s plan. Here’s the thing. I give because God calls me to.

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ (Acts 20:35 ESV)

It’s not my job to figure out where that money goes. Sure God “nudges” me when there is a cause close to my heart (like Gospel for Asia) and I give when I know where the money is going. There’s nothing terribly romantic or satisfying about giving to the “general fund” at church. But God calls us to do it.

So to rephrase my last quote…

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

 (2 Corinthians 9:7 ESV)