How to live rich when you have no money

This morning as I was looking at my Yahoo home page, one of the leading articles was about finding happiness in 2007. Having an insatiable need to learn - I clicked over and found this article which very adeptly describes how to find what makes you happy and build on it. It isn't really a new idea, more like one of those things you "know" but is left floating just outside of the consciousness.

It made me think about a sermon I once heard, that changed how I viewed things. It was back when I was a single mom, and as one, I was nearly always broke. I remember thinking that if I just had more money, I would be happier. PFFT.

The priest started by saying that we are all stewards of what we are given. That we are given according to our need, not our wants, our needs. Sometimes our needs are greater than our wallet, and those situations are designed to let others act charitably. Other times, we have more than we need, and it is our responsibility to be charitable as well. My kids would ask why we sould give money to drunks at the grocery store who we were pretty sure would just spend the money on booze ( actually, I went to getting gift cards at the fast food place, so they would get food and not booze) I explained that my responsibility is to give to those in need - if I have two coats I have to give one away. The person who recieves, is then responsible to make sure that what I have given is used for the right purpose. That burden isn't on me, it is on the recipient. Of course, it is good to help assure that things are on the up and up. I don't send money to TV preachers - or to people that I deem less than reputable, but I do help others when I can.

After a problem with one of my friends, I never lend money that I expect to receive back - that is for banks, and it isn't worth the cost of a friendship. I have always thought part of stewardship was making sure money was used for good, whenever possible - so I have often used my money to go see friends - to be at a wedding or a birthday - or come for a visit, even when I couldn't afford it per se, the money was spend doing exactly what Christ did: showing people that they matter, that their lives are important to someone else, that it's just money. There is the promise that needs will be met, and that the Lord will be sufficient unto the day, and I have yet to see otherwise.

Need is a funny word. We need food and a place to live and clothes. But Cable isn't a need, neither is home internet service, neither is lawn service. Those are wants and people get them a little muddled. They cry out to God to meet their needs, when what they really want is for God to meet their wants. I wonder how we will view Justin's job hunt 10 years from now - since I think he "needs" a job, but 15 months later, one has not been provided. Maybe it is a want and not a need. We make enough to pay our bills - to meet our needs - and we have to watch the wants a little more closely, but so far, so good.

People are funny about money. Oddly enough, it isn't really ours. That is the whole idea of stewardship: being responsible and wise in the care of something that doesn't beling to you. Certainly we can't take it with us- and if you look at folks who are making millions per movie, their lives can testify that money doesn't buy happiness either. But look further, at the folks who give lots of it away - they are much happier because they know the truth.

I work for a hospital, so when my paycheck comes, that money is temporarily mine, though some is already promised to my mortgage, my utilities and my car payment. But the hospital got that money from patients and their insurance companies, who got it from their employers, who got it from their customers, who got it from their employers and so on. Thus the common phrase at our house: It's just money, we'll make more.

My dad worked for an accounting firm when we lived in Indy, he traveled a lot, did a lot of trouble shooting and in the end, worked his butt off for that glorious high paying salary. He told me, not long after that, to never take a job you hate just for the money. It is better to do something you love and just meet your debts than to make lots of money at a job that eats you alive. When I stopped worrying about getting the highest paying job, and focused on what is really important: the ability to balance time at a job I like with time spent with my family whom I like, I learned to live within the amount in my paycheck.

And I learned that happiness for me is a little farm and baby chicks and enough money to put food on the table, even if we will never live in a $500,000 home like some of my kids friends, what we have is sufficient, and bears all the signs of a rich life.