Week 285

Positive post Sunday, August 7, 2022- Week 285.

Experiencing many significant events in my life over the past few years, and simply getting older, has caused me to pause and think more deeply about the true meaning of wealth. This led me to contemplate the age-old conflict between FINANCIAL wealth and SPIRITUAL wealth.

So, as I do most Sunday mornings when preparing my PPS, I set out to research my topic, for this Sunday, “wealth”. As you might imagine, there is certainly not a shortage of writings on wealth, but I did find a few articles that helped reinforce my belief that “true” wealth is spiritual wealth.

Here’s the link to the first article from Badi Shams, a Baha’i and a mystic at heart whose field of interest is in economics: https://www.timescolonist.com/…/the-spiritual-meaning…

Shams notes that one of the world’s greatest driving forces is the desire for financial wealth and that many wars have been fought and lives lost in the pursuit of money. He defines wealth from an economic perspective, but what interested me most is his spiritual definition of true wealth. He states, “I understand it to mean that we acquire spiritual wealth when we work to develop virtues such as trustworthiness, truthfulness, assertiveness, compassion, honesty, honour, prayerfulness, etc.”

Shams goes on to state, “If we spend our lives developing virtues, we will have something to show for it when our time in this world of material existence comes to an end, as these developed qualities will assist us in our next stage of existence. I see wealth as an amazing tool for service to humanity. At that end of life, wealth loses its glitter and its charm, and the only thing that will satisfy our soul would be the fact that we understood the true meaning of wealth and used our material wealth for the good of others.” I could not have said it better myself.

I read a second article titled, “Money is NOT the root of all evil!” from Compass Catholic Ministries.

The article notes that having money is NOT in and of itself evil. As noted in 1 Timothy 6:10, it is “The LOVE of money” that is the root of all evil. According to the article, and I certainly agree, money is seen as a tool, and the decisions we make when using money, our attitude about money and the things on which we spend money define us. The following statements from the article really made me think about how I spend money, and more deeply, if I am living a life driven by spiritual wealth or financial wealth.

– We can use money to fulfill selfish desires, or we can use money to further God’s kingdom on earth

– We can use money to keep up with the neighbors, or we can use money to help our neighbors

– We can use money to accumulate worldly wealth, or we can realize that true wealth is not of this world

– We can worship money, or we can worship God

We live in a world where materialistic and capitalistic wealth is often promoted and valued greater than spiritual wealth. Many of us have heard the saying, “He who dies with the most toys wins.” I believe that the Beatles had it right way back in March 1964 when they released their song, Can’t Buy Me Love (referring to money). Here is my quote, “Those blessed with financial wealth who use it to advance their spiritual wealth and live a life of service to the Lord and to others, win the greatest gift of all, eternal life.”

How do you use your financial wealth to build your spiritual wealth?

How do you worship God, not money?