Faith and Finance
I love the feeling of landing on ‘Free Parking’ in Monopoly, especially when it’s loaded up with $500 bills. Or how about when you own all four Railroads and someone takes a ride on the Reading – cha-ching!
I’ll easily spend three hours with friends trying to build my initial $1,500 of Monopoly money into a sizeable fortune with the hopes of owning it all.
But after the game is over, the thrill of someone landing on your hotel doesn’t last much longer after the money and pieces are put away. It’s funny because during the game it’s easy to get excited about finding a ‘bank error in your favor’ and collecting $200. But finding monopoly money laying around the house a week after you put the game up just doesn’t have the same excitement.
The only purpose of the Monopoly money was to be used during the game. After the game was over, it didn’t matter that you scored an extra $50 of Monopoly money that you found under your chair – it doesn’t have any more use.
That’s exactly what’s going to happen with our dollars.
Now I realize that I could open the conversation here to talk about inflation, quantitative easing, the devaluation of money, and all sorts of money mischief – but I won’t. I won’t because all that isn’t going to matter either.
You see, life is like a game of Monopoly. We’re only given so many resources to manage and steward – all of which ultimately come from God.
Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it”
Yes, our money does have a purpose while we’re here on earth, but once we’re gone, what will all the money in the world matter? It’s just like finding $50 of Monopoly money under the table a week after you put the game up – there’s no use for it because the game’s over.
When we make the connection that our money and every resource we have comes from God to serve his purpose, it makes you rethink why we have it in the first place. We can use our money to bless God in helping the poor, feeding the hungry, and spreading the Gospel –or we can have a narrow focus on our dollars just like when we play a 3 hour game of Monopoly.
I hope this quick illustration helps to put things into perspective. It’s so easy to work day after day to save for tomorrow and let good stewardship and generosity take a back seat in our finances. Life is short – use the resources that you’ve been given to glorify God and to share the Gospel with those who need it.
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