Love of Money

These are the questions we were asked to address in our online class this week, and here is my initial response to them:

Questions:

1. Jesus taught, "You cannot serve both God and money"(Matt. 6:24, NIV). How do you respond to that statement? How does your response correlate with your worldview?

2. Describe any important issue concerning human origins that evolution fails to explain. Discuss your perspectives with your classmates. What would change in your occupational decision if you were to approach it from a purely Naturalistic viewpoint?

Initial Response:

The scripture in Matthew made me think of another scripture, “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of injurious things, and by reaching out for this love some have been led astray from the faith…” (1 Timothy 6:10 NWT). Some Bibles translate it as “the love of money is the root of all evil.” So earning money or having money is not wrong, but it is the love of money that causes problems for Christians.

Getting back to the scripture in Matthew, I think the majority of the people in the United States serve money. The act of acquiring it is the most important thing in their lives. We need to ask ourselves what is more important to us, God or money? Initially, it may easy to say that God is more important in our lives than money, but it is not so black and white when you really think about it.

You don’t have to have money in order to worship it. If your desire for more money, or more material possessions interferes with your service to God, then you are serving money. It is really difficult to find balance because money is necessary to live. Money seems to rule my life at times. My husband was injured a year ago and has not been able to work since. Because of this, we have to consider money in every decision we make. We can’t go to visit friends because we can’t afford the gasoline to drive there, we have to make due when things break because we can‘t replace them, and we had to have a beloved cat put down because we could not afford an operation she needed, which still absolutely breaks my heart.

I have to admit that money is on my mind more than God. It makes me think of a German film I saw called Wings of Desire, where angels are portrayed as being among humans. While traveling through the city, the angels hear the humans’ thoughts. Most of the humans are thinking about money, how they will pay for things, etc… it makes the angels depressed. I don’t think the American version of the film, City of Angels, portrayed it as well.

As far as the Naturalistic Worldview is concerned, I found the Carl Sagan quote quite profound. Maybe I am looking at it in a way he did not intend, but in a way, I think he is right. Ecclesiastes 1:9 says that “there is nothing new under the sun.” I think that could be extrapolated to include the cosmos.

I am not sure that having a Naturalistic Worldview would change my choice of occupation. I could find a job right now that would bring my family more income. For a long time I tried to do it all, work, be a mom, a wife, and write, but my writing was always the casualty to lack of time and energy. Now that I am in my 40’s I realize that if I am going to write, I have to do it. Writing is something that I am very serious about. I have stories in me that are aching to get out, and I can’t hold them back anymore. It is the same with my education. You don’t need a college education to be a writer, but I value knowledge more for the sake of knowledge. I am a perpetual student.