Follow The Money

I began working on some material for a presentation to the Budget and Finance Committee at our church recently, and in pulling together various pieces of information I was reminded of the phrase “follow the money”.  Seems to me that I recall our intelligence agencies using the money trail to connect the dots in terrorist organizational structure.  I also recall a distant memory about an American mobster who managed to avoid prosecution for all kinds of illegal activity until some Federal agency decided to get him on tax evasion charges (was that Capone?).  The train of thought eventually rambled into the station of God’s Word, where I found Matthew 6:21 among my memory verses: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”  I paused to reflect on this for a minute, “following the money” in my mind, and it occurred to me that our relationship with Christ is indeed often revealed in its true depth (or shallowness) when we simply follow the money.  Years ago, I was pastor at a church that had suffered a split and had only a small congregation remaining.  Times were hard and the tiny congregation was barely getting by when God spoke to my heart about leaving a fairly lucrative job and serving the church full time as pastor.  One of the congregational leaders told me in no uncertain terms that all of them were struggling to make ends meet and they just simply could not afford to have me leave my secular job for full time ministry (I never asked for increased support, by the way).  I made the move anyway and God provided in many ways.  Coincidentally, the same congregational leader had a brand new automobile a week or two later, fully paid for!  More recently, I participated in a Half Marathon last weekend and I noticed a number of the runners with high quality (and expensive) shoes and other equipment.  Some of them had wristbands with chronometers that told them speed, distance, location, etc.  Clearly, they had invested much more in the race than I did (and they finished ahead of me too!).  My point is that my commitment to the race was obviously much less, financially speaking, than theirs and my performance trailed theirs.  Makes me wonder if my “performance” in the race of faith (which is the race of life) is likewise reflected by my financial investment in and commitment to race.  I suspect that if we follow the money, we may learn more about our commitment to Christ than we realize!  Press on, dear friends, press on.

~ by brotherfaron on October 5, 2009.