Your Money Or Your (Spiritual) Life

It’s nice to make money, isn’t it?

Now don’t give me that look.

A healthy desire to make money does not necessarily imply greed, or obsession, or that one is dedicating one’s life to serving the dreaded Mammon. All I’m saying is, as a practical matter, having money sure does come in handy. In fact, it is pretty much a requirement these days for getting around in our 21^st century Western culture.

When choosing a career, I kept this important little detail in mind as I aspired to earn a decent living, with an equally strong intention toards doing something that I liked and was also good at.  

What could possibly be wrong with that?

The problem I encountered as a young Christian man, however, was that I often detected a quiet disapproval coming from the church when it came to having a genuine interest in pursuing a “secular” career. I felt a gnawing sense that any desire to earn a solid income was somehow the antithesis of spirituality, associated instead with selfishness, materialism, worldliness and cutthroat-ism.

Growing up, the evangelical church taught me that the only ambition God was truly pleased with was the passion for making disciples, missions, service, or leading others to Christ. So if you had a sincere spiritual desire to seek out God’s plan for your life, then by default your primary vocation was going to be a disciple-maker. Just like Jesus (the missionary Jesus, not the working-for-the-family-business carpenter Jesus).

But what if I am not “called” to that? What if my gifts, talents and personality are better suited for business pursuits? I struggled with this for years as I developed a career in management consulting, and then eventually found my way to a corporate executive position.

High Calling Blogger Larry Peabody addresses this and many other sticky issues of integrating our faith with our work in a series called “Religious Ruts in Your Work World.” His recent post (Part 15), talks about this specific question of whether a good Christian can also have a good job. “Scripture makes it clear,” he says, “that God applauds (not just allows) working to earn.”

Well, that’s a relief. Because God help us all if He doesn’t.

Click here to continue reading the post at The High Calling Blogs.

Photo by Sam Mugraby. Used with permission.