MAKING 77 LOOK GOOD Week 5: God’s Wealth Wisdom

Making 77 Look Good involves many things - one of which is to make sure you have invested resources wisely. Especially if you have retired from your career, a lot depends on how wisely you invested the resources you earned throughout that career!! On top of that, you have to think about what you’re going to leave to the next generations… what kind of legacy - financial, relationally, spiritually - are you bequeathing to your kids and grandkids and great-grandkids.

Now I want us to start today with a passage in the New Testament that many people breeze over because they think it doesn’t apply to them - but, with the understanding of the wealth of the Western World, the blessing God bestowed on our great country by means of the ability to earn money, you probably have seen the statistic that in terms of the rest of the world, even the poorest of Americans are by comparison more in tune with resources than 90% of the rest of the world!

This week I ran across this little gem: "Dear Lord, I have been re-reading the event in the gospels about the rich young ruler who came to inquire of Jesus about gaining eternal life, and his obviously wrong choice on hearing Jesus’ answer. But it has got me thinking: no matter how much wealth he had, he could not ride in a car, have surgery, turn on a light, buy penicillin, listen to a piano play, watch TV, wash dishes in running water, send an email, mow a lawn, fly in an airplane, sleep on an innerspring mattress, or get a voicemail on his cell phone. -- If he was rich, then what am I?”

Puts a little bit of a different perspective on who the Bible is talking to when it addresses the rich of this world. When we read those words - rather than say, “well that doesn’t apply to me,” I think we would do well in at least paying attention with open ears to see if we cannot find some of God’s Will for our Wisdom in Wielding the Wealth that we DO have.

So let’s turn to that passage - one that is one of my favorites when it comes to instruction for the rich, because what is being said is not unrealistic, nor is it oppressive or have the intent of causing guilt for those of us who are truly better off when it comes to resources than many, many others in this world.