Week Seventeen, 2019
THE ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE
Lord, you alone are my inheritance, my cup of blessing. You guard all that is mine (Psalm 16:5).
“The man who is content to sit ignorantly by his own fireside, wrapped up in his own private affairs, and has no public eye for what is going on in the church and the world, is a miserable patriot, and a poor style of Christian. Next to our Bibles and our own hearts, our Lord would have us study our own times.” J. C. Ryle, 1879.
How much is enough? When asked, John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil and one of the world’s richest men said “just a little bit more.” How much is enough money? If John Rockefeller always needed a little more will you ever have enough? And how will you know when you have enough money to make you happy?
What does the Bible say about abundance? Abundance is frequently mentioned in the Bible as something God offers to those who trust in Him. Scripture says that God will provide an abundant life to those who “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” Abundance in this sense means a life full of everything you need to sustain yourself in joy and purpose.
It is a fatal mistake to assume that God’s goal for your life is material prosperity or popular success, as the world defines it. The abundant life has nothing to do with material abundance, and faithfulness to God does not guarantee success in any endeavor.
Unfortunately we live in a power driven, self-centered materialistic world. Prosperity and abundance is measured by power, position and possessions. On the other hand Jesus said that He came to bring abundant life.
Of course, we all want an abundant life, but what is it? It’s not about materialism. It’s about the more important things like faith, family and friends. The key to an abundant life is satisfaction and satisfaction is knowing and feeling that you have enough. Satisfaction is not always the fulfillment of what you want; it is the realization of how blessed you are for what you have.
To really have abundance and satisfaction, put first things first and the rest will follow. As St. Mathew said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
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SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES
We Don’t Buy Things with Money, We Buy Them with Hours from our Life.
As Henry David Thoreau put it, “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”
This is a life-changing principle. When we begin to see our purchases through the lens of exchanging life, rather than dollar bills, we can better appreciate the weight of our purchases and understand their full cost.
For that reason, I thought it might be helpful to take a hard look at how much life some of our purchases actually cost us.
For the sake of conversation, let’s use the median US household income. In 2017, that number was $61,400. For simplicity sake, let’s round down to $60,000 annual income.
If your household income is $60,000, working a typical 40-hour work week, here is how many hours of work are needed for the following purchases:
▪ Grande Starbucks Cappuccino ($4.00) = 8 minutes of work
▪ Pair of Wrangler Jeans ($24.99) = 50 minutes of work
▪ Coach Brand Purse ($119.99) = 1/2 day of work
▪ 256GB iPhone XS ($1,249) = 1 week + 2 hours of work
▪ Dinner at a restaurant for your family of four ($80.00) = 1/3 day of work
▪ Dinner at home for a family of four ($17.00) = 1/2 hour of work
▪ Ford Fusion SE Hybrid ($26,550) = 5 months + 10 days of work
▪ 2,500 square foot house (10% down payment, 30-year mortgage of monthly payments, $303,000 purchase price) = 11 years + 6 months of work
▪ 1,600 square foot house (15% down payment, 30-year mortgage of monthly payments, $196,000 purchase price) = 7 years + 2 months
Keep in mind, the amount of work needed for the items above is based on an annual salary of $60,000. If your annual salary is $30,000, the work time will be doubled. If you make $120,000/year, the measurements should be halved.
Of course, there are alternatives to exchanging our hours and lives for material possessions…
▪ It takes just 10 minutes to tell your child a bedtime story.
▪ 45 minutes for an evening walk with your spouse.
▪ 60 minutes to help your son/daughter with homework.
▪ Or 2 hours/month to volunteer at your local soup kitchen.
The money we earn is ours to keep and we can spend it as we wish. But it can be a helpful exercise to realize how many hours of our lives go into each purchase we make.
And it is always wise to remember we can spend our hours pursuing items of far greater value than material possessions.
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QUOTES YOU CAN USE
The stronger your heart muscle mass is, the less work it has to do each time it beats. Remember, your heart is beating in your chest around one hundred thousand times a day! You will learn to determine how effectively your personal pump is functioning, as well as learn a simple routine to make certain it is as strong as possible. —Dr. Jim Frist
Realize that the health of your arteries is one of the major factors in aging. —Dr. Richard Furman
C.S. Lewis said that “our bodies and our souls live so close together that they catch each other’s diseases.”
We may get chosen last by those forming a basketball team, but when God pulls together His team, He looks each of us square in the face and says, “I want you!” —Dwight Short
Be the change you want to see in the world! —Author unknown
Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of constantly applying basic fundamentals. —Author unknown