God and Money

If there is one thing with which most Christians grapple, it is the whole issue of money management, or financial stewardship. I have read countless books on personal finance and wealth management, and while I agree with much of the practical outcroppings of how to invest and how to save, ultimately for me it comes down to a simple governing principle that I have seen work again and again...and it will again. This is my philosophy (my own words) when it comes to money, and it is not shared by too many people I know:

The money I have is not mine; it was entrusted to me by God to use as wisely as I can. God can give you more, give you less, bless you with an abundance, or take it all away. In the end, the only thing we can do is be good stewards of what He has given us, while at the same time, simply earnestly trusting Him to provide for us on a daily basis.

What I wrote above is nothing new. It is my own way of re-phrasing a principle, which is essentially scattered throughout the Bible. While the topic of money tends to be a thorny topic that no one likes to talk about, I don't think it needs to be seen as a contentious issue either. There are some issues about which I feel strongly, when it comes to money management (such as farting it away via gambling, lottery tickets, and what not - in my view, this is not a healthy stewardship of money or wealth), but most times, I think that money can be discussed in an open dialogue, even amongst those who may disagree.

I'll start the dialogue with several things for you to think about:

1) To whom does our money belong? Put this in light of the fact that we all die and as the old saying goes, "we can't take it with us".

2) Why do you think people are so concerned with money? The saving of it. The spending of it. The hoarding of it. The lusting after it. What do you think are the root issues behind some of these practices?

3) What do you feel are some perceptions about money in general? That is, whether you have it or don't have it?

I am not planning to answer any of the above questions here in this blog entry - just something for you to think about.

As a Christian, I obviously base my view of money management on my worldview, which is very strongly shaped by my understanding of what the Bible says. Don't get me wrong, though - I tend to worry about finances from time to time as well (whether needlessly or otherwise), but my overarching principle is based on my sincere belief that God is ultimately in control of my finances and while His Word sheds or gleans some principles from which I can learn how to be a good steward of it, ultimately through experiences I have had, I can see His providence again and again.

I'll dissect all of this now...

Yesterday, my wife had a bit of a surprise when one of her long standing clients informed her that she will no longer be a client of her business, as of the end of this week. That is pretty short notice. I suspect our client's decision has a bit to do with the fact that she will be taking some time off next year once our new child is born. But in my wife's profession, client turnover is not to be unexpected, and in a way, we didn't really expect this.

However, as we chatted on the couch yesterday afternoon, it was clear that her absence would obviously have an impact on our finances. A big impact, considering she was my wife's biggest client (read: largest paycheque). As a result, as is normal amongst married couples who go through financial crunches, we had a discussion about how we will make it through this unexpected drop in revenue (and subsequently, profits) at a time that was a lot sooner than either one of us would have expected. My wife was naturally worried about how we would make it through the next few months, and I can certainly understand the anxiety something like this would bring. Of course, this is also in light of the fact that I got swindled for $600.00 through a paypal chargeback scheme two months ago, and the fact that I am leery on selling anything using paypal these days - of course, that has dropped my supplementary income significantly.

For whatever reason, I was not overly worried, and I really tried to encourage my wife not to worry as well, but you know how it is - money matters create great anxiety amongst people and understandably so. But thankfully, with some quick memory exercises, I managed to look at this in an overall perspective, based on my past experiences.

First, this is nothing new. We went through something similar back in 2002 when my wife was pregnant with our first son - back then, I remember using Microsoft Money as well as a tedious Excel spreadsheet that I kept, tracking our finances. Based on my salary at the time, plus my wife's maternity benefits, which were only a fraction of her salary at the time, we compared it to our expenses, and concluded that on paper, anyway, that we would be in the RED by about $800-$900 dollars per month. That is a pretty significant loss of income. Add to that the fact that we had an absolutely crappy automobile (which cost us $5,500.00 to buy in 2000, but by 2002, had cost us $6,400.00 in repair costs) that was sucking the financial life out of our family savings program, it wasn't looking good. The car was likely not a good idea for a vehicle in which to carry a new baby (due to its history of being very unreliable and dying in the most inopportune of places), so we needed a new car, especially with the winter coming). We were SOOOO stressed at the time, and we ended up, as a last resort (not as a first) to laying all of our financial burdens at God's feet, and asking Him to take over, since there was no way we would be able to survive, given this enormous shortfall.

You'll never guess what happened next.

The day after, I sat down in my room and prayed for a way to get rid of the money-eating car, and find some way to pay for a new one that was more reliable. Given the enormous amount of repairs on it, I doubt that anyone would pay the $3200.00 for which we had listed it. I was trying to find some free way to list the car, and somehow found this site, which I have never seen or heard of: http://www.usedcarsontario.com. I listed the car, with no photos (since I didn't have a digital camera at the time nor did I have a regular camera) at around 1:10PM in the afternoon. Within 30 minutes of me listing the car, I got one phone call (and just so you know, he was the only one who called throughout the whole process) from a guy named Reza, who was interested in the car, but he expected me to run it through the standard safety inspection and emissions test, which was common for sellers to pay to have done. I said, no problem. I brought it to the garage, and to my horror (though if I was thinking straight at the time, I should not have been surprised), it failed both the safety inspection and the emissions tests. I paid to have it restested by another garage, and it failed again. Cost was basically $1900.00 to repair to the point where the car will pass the safety and emissions test. I knew that Reza would back out once I told him of the repair costs, since I didn't have the money to cover it, and I certainly didn't expect him to cover it - plus, he probably thought, "what a piece of junk" and back out from the deal. To my surprise, he contemplated it for a while, and then came back and said, "tell you what, why don't we each pay half." I was shocked. Here was a guy who is looking to buy a car which I honestly have told him has had some problems, and on the safety/emissions, he offered to pay half of the repair costs. I was surprised, and said, "sure", and that was that, and I sold the car, and got some money for it. It turns out that had he not called (remember, he was the only one who responded to my ad), the car would have been valued at far less, and with the repairs, it would have been a simple write-off, and I wouldn't have made anything off of it, and would have been out a vehicle.

Now, skeptics out there may think, "this is just co-incidence, that you prayed and then you were unable to make some money off your car." Hold on...it gets better.

The following week, I get my gas bill from Enbridge (gas company) - with a note saying that they have, for whatever reason, overcharged us five months worth of gas bills. As a result, I won't have to pay the gas bill for five months (and remember, this was around November, so basically, I didn't have to pay the gas bill for much of the winter, when the gas bill would have been through the roof due to natural gas for the furnace and hot water tank). OK, you may still think this is all a coincidence...I'm not done yet...

Over the course of the winter, I discovered that I was going to be receiving a bonus from work. Then, that summer, I got perhaps one the biggest salary raises that I have ever experienced - about a 19.3% in my salary. That was very rare those days for employers to award such a large salary increase. But I receive it, and was very surprised. Could this have been coincidence as well, given all the other things so far? I have more...

A year after we got our nice little surprise on the bill from Enbridge, my wife gets a call from the bank. Our son was born, and he was about 8 months old or so. She calls me in the car, and I still remember where I was (driving northbound through the Steeles / McCowan intersection of northern Toronto). She said she needs to talk to me, so I need to stop off somewhere. Incidentally, I ended up stopping in the parking lot of a Chinese church, of all places, just north of the intersection. She told me the following: "the bank has called and indicated to me that our interest rate for our mortgage was way too much, and as a result, they would like to lower it. No strings attached."

Now, let me ask you - have you EVER heard of a bank wanting to lower your mortgage rate, no strings attached? Our mortgage was not even up for renewal and would not have been for another 2.5 years. Our rate back then was 7.25, and we ended up getting it lowered to 5.44%, which, if you know anything about mortgage rates, is a tremendous reduction, saving us thousands over the course of a year.

All of the above in the span of a year. Not to mention, we got back more on our taxes that year than we thought, and a year later, I would have a chance encounter with someone at work, with whom I never talk about personal things, but we managed to meet up in the cafeteria, and he introduced me to a group insurance company for car/home, and since I signed up, have saved literally over $1400.00 a year since 2004. Interestingly enough, shortly after our conversation, he was moved to a different account and I have not seen him since.

In the whole time during this stress period, we continued to tithe, even though is seemed, logically, to be counter-productive to our cost-savings practices. Yet, despite all of this, we managed to pay our bills, and even had a lot of money left in order to contribute to retirement savings investments. To this day, I can analyze our books back then, and I just have no idea where the money seemed to come from. Well, I do know, but I don't understand how it happened.

Since that time, God has honoured our desire for my wife to stay home and raise our son, but providing the opportunity to run a small business on the side that will allow her to stay home and also generate some extra revenue. I have also been blessed with some supplementary income through eBay and now's Craigslist, that has made me a LOT of money over the years. And I am still at my current job, and have been here for 10 years now, next month. I am not independently wealthy, but I'm not starving either, if you know what I mean. There are those who rabidly argue that it is not possible for a mother to stay home with her child in this day and age - we would disagree with that and have shown that it can be done - sure it's tougher, but it's well worth it to raise a well-adjusted, disciplined child, who knows love from his parents (as you can tell, I'm not a fan of children-in-daycare for our kids - this is another discussion altogether on another blog post that I may do in the future).

So when I see another financial crunch coming in the future, I tend not to worry (I'm not saying I won't, just that I tend not to). Much of this is due to seeing how God has taken care of us over the years, and have not only provided for us, but have blessed us in abundance financially. When things aren't looking that rosy ahead, I would just encourage you to look back to see how God has brought you to this point, and just continue to trust Him for your ongoing needs. He does provide. This is not just a theory they float on Sunday mornings. It is true. We've experienced it.

Now, let's move from my own experience to what I understand the Bible says about money management, and I'm not talking about investment principles here, as important as they are.

I've said this before in my blog entry discussing gambling, but it's worth it to repeat - the Bible references the topic of money/wealth/investing/financial stewardship more often than any other topic, including heaven/hell combined. God, in His wisdom, knew that people would struggle over money, so he had a lot to say about it, since he knew people would face all sorts of financial anxieties in the future.

It is interesting to note that in the book of Malachi, God challenges people to test Him when it comes to money (while I am no Biblical scholar, I believe this is the only place in the Bible where God has challenged people to test Him). There are many parables amount money, there are a lot of principles about wealth management gleaned from both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Not just money, but possessions as well, since we know that satan is constantly on the prowl looking to entrap people with wealth. One thing to remember, and then I have to abruptly finish this blog entry, since I am suffering carpel tunnel syndrome right now - remember that the Bible is NOT against wealth. The Bible is not anti-money. When people quote the Bible (1 Timothy, I think) and say that "Money is the Root of All Evil", that is completely incorrect. What the passage says is "The Love of Money is the Root of All Evil" (emphasis mine). This is consistent with what it says in Luke about not being able to serve two masters - you either serve God or money. Money is not the problem. Being a slave to it, or lusting after it, is. By keeping a proper perspective of what money is, how is it obtained, and where it comes from, it will help to prevent such a "I love money" mentality from forming, and I do believe, that, just like all things, if you put God's will ahead of your own in your life, and trust in Him to provide for you (Matthew 6:25-34), He will keep his promises and supply all your needs, monetary or otherwise.