Some of you may read this post and think, “Well, it doesn’t really apply to me…I’m not rich.”
Nonsense. If you make more than $24k a year, you are among the wealthiest 10% in the world. If you are a student, that too is a form of wealth that only the privileged enjoy. So even though you might not have stock options at Google, you are probably still a wealthy person.
Having said that … I’ll share a thought about how that wealth is an enormous responsibility.
I’m often asked by successful young businesspeople how they can make a difference in the world. They usually have a good job with great potential, but they question whether their work makes any eternal difference. As one 30-something engineer from a Silicon Valley firm once asked me, “Am I really following Jesus if I spend my time making more money for billionaires? Wouldn’t it be better if I were feeding the homeless or doing something more meaningful?”
Sometimes the question irritates me because I see it as a question only the privileged have the luxury to ask. I want to shout, “Are you kidding me? You’ve got stock options that could build a thousand classrooms in India, and you want to hand out sandwiches on the streets? Don’t be an idiot!”
But even though their question might not be the right question, it does indicate a good heart. The question expresses a willingness to be reflective. And a desire to do the right thing. That’s good.
We all carry an itch to do something more meaningful and there is value in contemplating the health of our current situation. Asking such questions demonstrates that we are listening to that voice in our hearts that whispers, “Something is seriously amiss here….”
But what, exactly, is amiss?
The question can only be answered individually, but I have a few thoughts that might help you in the journey.
The most famous passage in the New Testament is John 3:16, which says that God so loved the world that he gave his Son. The idea in the passage is that God has an intense, burning love for the world.
I’ve always appreciated another verse, by the same author, in I John 2:15. It reads, “Do not love the world or anything in the world.”
So apparently it’s okay for God to love the world, but not okay for us to love it. Why?
I think the answer, at least in part, is because loving the world is dangerous. It’s filled with a lot of temptations that entice us with meaningless things.
The danger is especially acute for the wealthy. The world has been good to them so it is easy to believe it’s worth loving. But loving the world and all the things of the world — the acclaim, the food, the trips, the houses, the cars, the praise of our boss, the access to great health care, the influence on others, the serenity of having nothing to worry about — is a very dangerous way to live.
There’s nothing wrong with being appreciative of worldly things. Or even in seeking them to better yourself.
But there is real danger in falling in love with them. Or putting your hope in them. And it’s remarkably easy to tempt the wealthy into loving all of that.
In his great book Freedom of Simplicity, Richard Foster writes, “Wealth is not for the spiritual neophytes; they will be destroyed by it…The path is fraught with great frustrations and temptations, and those who walk it have to face perplexing decisions and tragic moral choices that most people will never have to consider…We (the wealthy) will be living close to hell for the sake of heaven.”
It’s a narrow path, with slippery slopes on both sides.
So when I hear a young person ask if they should quit their jobs and feed the hungry, I don’t roll my eyes anymore. Instead, I ask them if they have begun to love the world. I ask them if instead of moving to Africa or living among the homeless, do they want to walk the really dangerous path of being wealthy in this world.
I ask them if they have the courage to not love the world.
Do you?