I finished reading ‘Wild Man to Wise Man: Reflections on Male Spirituality’ by Richard Rohr, Joseph Martos this week. First released in 1990, it’s a fascinating read!
Early on in the book, they wrote this on the subject of money:
It is all too easy to fall in love with money, to be captivated by the pursuit of money and to project every manner of meaning and value onto money. If money is not explicitly dethroned, it will never be neutral for long. It will demand allegiance.
It’s a good reminder.
It reminded me too of some of Jesus’s words:
You cannot serve God and wealth.
In other words, religious or not, we all end up serving one god or another. Don’t make money your god.
It’s easy, hearing it in these terms, to disassociate. Money is no god for me.
But I think we let ourselves off the hook too easily. I know I do.
Perhaps it helps to think less about the money directly and rather what we do with it. The things we can’t live without. The things we can’t afford. The things we buy to keep up or look good to those around us.
It’s been said before, but don’t tell me what you value, tell me how you spend your money, then I’ll know what you actually value.
How we spend our money is a reflection of who we are and what’s important to us. Is it serving us, or are we serving it?
—Sam
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