Money: The Savers and Planners

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As part of a seminary class on money and ministry, I filled out a [confidential] money autobiography. That set of journaling questions is from Dan R. Dick.

After completing that exercise, I was curious about what other forms of a money autobiography there were. The internet loves “what are you” quizzes. Okay, fine. I am entertained by those quizzes, even if I have my doubts about the validity of the conclusions. I searched for “money autobiography quiz” and found various options, each with their own labeling system. I won’t use anyone else’s creative titling here. I’ll just talk about broad themes.

The Savers and Planners

Today, I want to talk about the group of people who carefully plan their money. These are the ones who set long term goals and save for them. They may have multiple savings accounts, each dedicated to a different goal. These people will skip out on social events if it means they have to spend rather than meet their saving goals. Their entire life is structured around ensuring financial security. For this type, the thought of living without a line-item budget necessitates calling for smelling salts.

The Caveat

Before I go farther, I want to acknowledge that this type of careful attention to money is sometimes the only way a family can meet its needs. The less money a person has, the more carefully they need to plan and stick to their goals. I’m not talking about people whose lives are controlled by money out of necessity. It’s not fair to evaluate someone’s decisions when those decisions are controlled by factors outside their control. Instead, this article is about people who have an income sufficient to meet survival and comfort needs and yet every decision is run through the metric of whether or not it is in line with their financial goals.

Thinking Deeply

The Dan R. Dick money autobiography asks, “In what ways can God help you with your relationship with money and material wealth?”

When I think about the planners in the context of this question, I think about Matthew 6:25-24. In this passage, Jesus tells people who are living in a political and economic system that may have kept them scrambling to stay at subsistence level not to worry about what they will eat or what they will wear.
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Imagine that. The only life you know is one where taxes are added to taxes and ancestral lands are lost to the colonizers, making it harder and harder to support yourself and your family in the methods you are used to. Imagine being a woman in this situation. You have less social standing than men. Your options for working for income are limited. People may view you as a tool to be used more than they see you as a human. If your father or husband chooses not to give you enough to survive, you’re pretty much out of luck. If your male protector dies, you better hope he leaves you wealthy, which is unlikely when he can barely keep the family afloat while he’s working. Then Jesus looks at you and says not to worry because God knows you need to eat and have clothes.

Are You Sure About That, Jesus?

Maybe you want to believe that it will all work out in the end because God cares for you, but how does this claim match your experience?

And what about the parable of the bags of gold, also known as the parable of the talents, in Matthew 25:14-30? Doesn’t this show that God wants us to use the money given to us to get more money?

​What if both things are true? What if God wants us to use what we have intelligently, not hiding it away in fear of losing it and also God wants us to not worry about our daily needs being met. Under this understanding, it isn’t wrong to save and plan. The problem would come when someone relies on their saving and planning to the point that they believe that is the only thing saving them from financial disaster. When we forget that God is ultimately the giver of all that we have, we can forget that God loves humans and wants them to thrive.

Of Course There Had to Be Christianese

Christians say that often: Everything comes from God. Is that true or is it just something we say that is a distortion of the truth?
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It depends on what you mean by “everything comes from God.” I once asked a scientist this question. My summary of their answer is that the more they learn about the most elemental things - microscopic things that I don’t remember the names of - and how no matter how human-made something appears to be, it always comes back to things that simply exist. Many Christians believe that things that simply exist are things that come from God. Incidentally, you don’t have to believe in Young Earth Creationism to believe that things come from God, but that’s a topic for another day. If all things, even the most human-made things, like a plastic cup, ultimately come from things that come from God, then sure, everything comes from God.
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However, if when you say that everything comes from God, you mean that your food, housing, and clothing is a direct result of God’s giving, then things get more complicated. If you believe that your paycheck that you work for is a direct gift from God, I have to ask if you believe that God controls a person’s mind against their will. What I mean is, why did your boss hire you and not someone else? Did God make them or was that decision a result of God allowing humans to make their own decisions and in this case, the decision another human made benefitted you? If you think both questions are the same, what would you say to another Christian who also applied for your job but didn’t get hired? Why did God not give the job to them? What if they are currently using public assistance to get by while you are thriving? Why didn’t God give them the job instead of you?

Okay, Now My Head Hurts

We can keep asking questions like this. They are useful for reflection, but they can also lead us into a muddle. Sometimes, these questions lead us to a place that is so complicated, we become overwhelmed and drop the matter entirely. I don’t think there is necessarily anything wrong with that. I think there is value in the asking, even if the answer we get to is “I don’t understand enough to understand the question.” In my experience, once the idea is put into our brain, even if it doesn’t make sense now, having that exposure helps us to understand a little bit more the next time we encounter the idea.
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This is the concept behind skill or concept leveling in education. When we teach someone to read, we don’t start with a college biology textbook or a theological commentary. We start with the alphabet. Then we move to simple sentences. Then we go to stories or non-fiction works that are several sentences long. Then writings that are a few pages long. Then content that is paragraphs long. Then we move to chapter books. Then we might add in more complex material. By this point, the student has been learning to read for several years. After a few more years, we might introduce complex works like nineteenth-century literature. We generally don’t give them the biology textbook until they have a decade or more practice reading and understanding written work. Each time the student levels up, we expect them to struggle at first because we’ve asked them to do something harder. In a thoughtful educational system, there has been plenty of practice thinking about scientific concepts and learning to read scientific material. Even if reading a college level biology textbook is challenging, it shouldn’t be a totally new concept because components of the complex skills have been practiced throughout the years. Jump forward several more years and someone who has been working in the sciences professionally may easily read and comprehend a college-level textbook.

Thinking about how what we believe about God affects how we think about life is like this. Maybe we have lots of questions, but the questions themselves confuse us, or maybe the answers don’t make sense. That’s okay. Start with what you do know and ask God to help you understand what else you need. In my experience, if this willingness to be challenged paired with consistently asking God for instruction becomes a lifestyle, over the years you will come to understand more than you did at first.

Uh, Did You Forget This Is About Money?

So, back to those people who structure their lives around creating financial security even though they currently have enough to be comfortable. How could this way of relating to money be used in a way that is consistent with how God wants humans to live?

In the Old Testament, we see that God cares a lot about taking care of vulnerable people – usually referred to as the widows, the fatherless, the poor, and the “foreigner among you.” See for example, Leviticus 23:35 and Deuteronomy 24:19. A similar theme can be seen in the New Testament. In Mark 12:40, Jesus says that those who make widows homeless will be punished most severely. James 1:27 famously says that the religion God accepts is the one that looks after widows and orphans.

There is also evidence that God wants people to use money thoughtfully. Simply giving it away for the good of others and then living in poverty yourself isn’t something that I see promoted in scripture. Going back to the parable of the bags of gold, the person who used the gold to get more money was praised over the one who hid the money to keep from losing it. In 1 Corinthians 16:2, Paul recommends setting aside a weekly sum so that when he comes to collect aid for the poor, there won’t be a last-minute call for donations. This verse, in the NIV, has the phrase “in keeping with your income.” The implication is that Paul does not expect someone to go without so that another can be helped. The account of the widow’s offering in Mark 12:41-44 can be read as both an accolade of the widow giving up her last coin and a condemnation of a religious system that made her think her destitution was required to make God happy. I could keep going and include examples from the Old Testament about how God told the Israelites to manage their possessions so that they would have enough and those in need would also be helped, but I think I’ve given you plenty to think about already.

So, Can a Good Christian Save or Not?

In conclusion, I suggest that saving, budgeting, and having a plan for financial stability is not fundamentally inconsistent with living in trust that God will provide what is needed. The problem comes when our trust is put primarily in our financial planning and God’s care for us is an afterthought. Now, we can’t just flip a switch and suddenly have trust in God. Trust requires a shared history. When other people tell stories about how God has provided for them, that can help us develop trust, but it seems to me that personal experience is the most powerful. What thought pattern can you develop or what action can you take that will help you to see the shared history you have with God, with a view to creating conditions where trust can be built?
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Let’s turn this question into a prayer.

God, you created humans and called that creation good. I am a human, so I chose to accept that you call my existence good. I am a saver and planner. I want to trust you more than I trust my financial plan, but I also want to use the skills you have given me. How do I do both in a way that complement each other? How does my thinking need to change so that I am developing trust in you? What financial actions would you have me do? What from our shared history proves that I can trust you? Please help me to see future evidence, too. Thank you for giving me understanding as I encounter confusing and challenging ideas. You are the God of light and truth and clarity. I look to you for all this as I seek to follow you with all my heart, soul, and mind in financial matters.

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