YOU FOOL

In my morning devotions, I've arrived at one of my all-time favorite Bible passages: Luke 12. For all the times I've pored over it, prayed over it, wanted it to soak into my life, I also know that it is the kind of passage that you sometimes prefer to skip over. I'm writing about it tonight, in the hopes that I will not skip over it, but seek to apply it to my life.

Jesus is teaching the masses when a dude interrupts him and asks him to mediate a financial conflict he's having with a family member. Jesus uses the interruption as an opportunity to tell a story about money. He talks of a businessperson whose venture does well one year, and decides to build a bigger barn, store up his excess profits, and spread out the bounty over the foreseeable future.

Sounds like the most rational thing in the world to do, right? Jesus calls this man a fool -- in the Greek, this word means foaming and frothing. As a businessperson myself, and one who tries to be shrewd and far-sighted in his financial planning, this passage challenges me. What I derived from it this morning was that what seems totally logical in a world without God is totally illogical in a world governed by Him. Without God, it makes all the sense in the world to take measures to take care of yourself for the long haul.

Jesus goes on to describe, rather, that while those who don't know God have every right to worry about such things, those who do know God need not worry, for God takes care of His own. In a world with God, then, we are to seek first His kingdom -- conceivably with our money, just as much as with anything else of ours -- and let God take care of things like how much money we'll have next year.

I've never sure what to make of this passage. Would Jesus be against savings, retirement planning, and budgeting? Am I to give all extra money away during good years, and hope fully in God's provision during bad years? At the very least, I can conclude that just because something is reasonable from a secular perspective doesn't mean it's not foolish from a divine perspective. May I be soft-hearted enough to not rationalize this lesson away. Rather, as I probe myself and my motives, God's Word and His lessons, may I be willing to live as one who knows Him, and act accordingly. Even and especially with my money.