Few things make us worry more than money and personal finances. There are so many ways we worry about money. We worry when we don’t have enough to pay our bills and cannot be at a peace with our finances. We get anxious over why we don’t make as much as our neighbor, coworker, or friends. We worry about choosing the right financial vehicles so we can prepare ourselves for retirement.
There is a popular illustration that Francis Chan made years ago about planning for retirement and how we occupy our thoughts with that, rather than eternal life with the one true God. He had a rope that wrapped around the stage which represented eternity with God. At the very end was a three inch section covered with black tape and then one very thin part that had red tape. The black tape represented our physical lives here on earth. The red tape represented the brief time we spend in retirement.
He thought it was crazy how we all spend our lives (the black tape) worrying and planning for how we will spend those last few years of our lives in retirement (the red tape). He jokingly mocked how we plan and plan, always consumed with how we will spend those last years. He mimicked how others would say we are “stupid” for not caring about planning our lives for those last few years.
He quickly responded to that notion, “no, YOU’RE stupid!”
“What about all this?” he replied as he reeled in the long part of the rope that was eternity.
What about that part? Let’s not forget to keep the right perspective on our lives of planning and chasing money. Worrying about how we will get more than we need so we can impress others who, ironically, don’t even care. Don’t move into money decisions without first going to God.
May this prayer over your finances bring you peace and help to put behind you your anxiety over money.