As I mentioned last Thursday, this week is dedicated to the topic of money. I wanted to start off by addressing a concept that many people have engraved in their minds about how it is sinful to have money, especially A LOT of money! Usually 5 minutes do not pass before the person I am talking to brings up ‘the money is the root of all evil’ line from the Bible. I do not use the Bible as a reference book for my life, but I do know enough to suggest that the person go and re-read their Bible. The actual line is that ‘the love of money is the root of all evil’, while ‘the money is the root of all evil’ crap is something someone made up, in my opinion, to suppress ambition and to keep people in line. Do you notice the difference between the two?
Money is simply a tool that facilitates the exchange of value between people. It is not mean to make you happy, though it can make you comfortable. So in the words of Bob Proctor, if money does not make a difference in whether you are happy or not, might as well have it, so that if you are miserable, at least you can be miserable in comfort.:o)
So, if money is the exchange of VALUE, it must mean that you have to offer VALUE in order to receive money. So the more money you have, the more value you must have provided! And this makes me want to ask you the following question, “Is being poor as sin?”, since it means you have not provided a lot of value! Now if the things I have said before did not ruffle your feathers, that one must have pushed you over the top!
Now you may say that you are volunteering and obviously providing value, but are not getting money in return. While that is a valid point on the surface, it is flawed because value does not have to come from the very same source. Maybe you are getting a lot of perks and other benefits, which can also be considered as VALUE. Or maybe your volunteering experience puts you in a position to get a job with a much better pay than you may have had otherwise, so that money comes from a different area. You may also bring up an example of a drug dealer who makes a lot of money but destroys lives of his or her customers. Again, you are forgetting a simple fact that the drug dealer is providing VALUE to drug users. Yes, drugs are bad for us, but so are many things, the only difference being their legal status and the speed with which they destroy us.
I hope that this will help you look at money a little differently. Your thoughts?
Until next time,
V