How much are you earning now? How much do you need to be making five years from now? Have you been working with your banker, accountant, or financial advisor towards a plan. Are you investment ratios right for this stage of your financial planning life? Is your insurance coverage adequate? How many years before the kids are going away to college? How long before you have to retire? What will the nursing home cost? Are you happy?
I bet your feeling a bit queasy, aren't you? It's alright, go ahead and take a few minutes to unclench that sphincter muscle and normalize your respiration. Think blue water, green rolling hills, and warm summer nights. Better now?
Money is an obsession. An approved obsession, but an obsession none the less. If you think about it a great deal and are fairly good at handling the green stuff, it's even considered a laudable preoccupation. Should you be one of those rare gems that eat, sleep, and dream cold hard cash but can multiply it like a magic act, you are practically worshipped.
Money or any other material wealth is an okay addiction, because we love it, we need it, and we cannot live without it. It's just that simple, isn't it?
Ever looked at your brother-in-laws mansion, boat, and BMW, and feel envy? Ever considered how your sister was so lucky to marry the plastic surgeon when you got the plumber, and felt that twinge of jealousy that visits occasionally? Sure, we almost all have, that's called "covetousness".
What? Yes, it is the sin of coveting. It isn't the money that committed the sin, just your love of it. We live in a time and culture when coveting is called "inspiration", "motivation ", and "visualization". Keeping up with the Joneses, Browns, Bakers, and don't forget those real housewives and the Kardashians is a litmus test by which we judge how (and who) we are in the hierarchy of society. It's just a tool, that's all, isn't it?
Nope, but it's still an acceptable, excusable, and reasonable sin today, so that makes it okay. It's for a good cause, the ends justify the means, and it really can't hurt anything. Covetousness would be illegal if it were bad, so what's the difference?
How could you prove it in court? That would be a hell of a prosecution to convince even one juror that the accused coveted, maybe it was simple lifestyle enhancement. Perhaps a coincidence that two neighbors also bought increasingly flashy and expensive custom ski-racks for their identical, consecutive model year Mercedes Benz. It's possible.
Sure it is, but that doesn't change what it is, it's coveting and that's a sin. Oh, it is a socially acceptable sin because we live in a consumption based world and we also have a mortgage to pay.
Is it really that important?
God put it in the Top Ten, so tame your addiction or if you have figured it out, let God do the taming and be receptive to His Work. You may discover your ski-racks don't need Kevlar jacketed GPS and Forwards Looking Infrared Radar.
You may even find a little time to be happy.
No comments:
Post a Comment