Luke 12:13-15 -- On Faith and Finances

"And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.
And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?
And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth."
Luke 12:13-15


This is interesting for many reasons. First of all, the question about who made Christ a judge or divider... because if anyone IS a judge over us, it is Christ. So, either Christ was talking specifically about an earthly position that he wasn't in, like... "hey, I'm not the administrator of your precinct" or something, or else perhaps it wasn't until Christ completed his earthly mission that all power was given unto him (including the whole being our judge thing), or maybe Christ is saying that the judgement is not yet, and we need to make the best choices that we can until that day, when God makes everything right. All interesting possibilities.

I like the part where Christ says that our lives are more than our possessions. It's a direct contradiction to the whole "he who dies with the most toys wins" and also just our often-acquisitive nature. I think on some level we're always afraid of losing the things we love, so we collect them or try to hold on to them in unhealthy ways sometimes. God teaches us to, instead of being afraid of losing things, to have an "abundance" mentality... to trust that good things will come again, and that the Lord will provide, freeing us up from all that worry and stress to be generous with our possessions and healthy in our relationships.

Not saying it is easy. The division of inheritance is often an issue in our day as well, and financial things can seem like *really* big issues in our lives sometimes because money is so wrapped up around what we're able to do in this world. I think though that the first step is to try... try to relax about not having enough of whatever it is, and try to trust the Lord that he will provide... and the more we try and trust, the better we get at it. Faith works that way... it doesn't just happen to us out of the blue. Like other things, we have to learn it and practice it until we get good. :) Today, let's try. :)