I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry” (Luke 12:19).

In Luke 12 Jesus tells a parable about a rich fool. Go read it and then let’s talk.

We don’t know much about this fellow: he was wealthy, he had fields and barns, he harvested a bumper crop and decided to store away for the future.

We don’t know whether he was also an adulterer or a thief or a liar. Nothing is said about him beating his wife or cheating his employees.

Yet Jesus calls him a fool. Jesus looks at his life, weighs it, and finds it lacking. Why?

Is it simply that the man was rich? Is Jesus prejudiced against the wealthy? But what about Job and David and Abraham? They were wealthy men who still enjoyed God’s favor.

Is it that he decided to build bigger barns to store up the surplus? But isn’t that what Joseph did long ago in Egypt? God didn’t call Joseph a fool.

No. What Jesus sees and disdains in the rich fool is an attitude. The man thought money (and what he did with it) was his own business. He didn’t think his money was any of God’s concern.

God’s Money

The rich fool thought all this stuff was his. Do you see it in the text? My crops . . . my barns . . . my grain . . . my goods. He thought he could use his stuff as he saw fit. In the end, he felt perfectly justified in storing up his stuff for himself and his own needs.

What he didn’t do was consider God. He didn’t view his riches as God’s gift. He didn’t think about using his riches as God saw fit. And he didn’t stop to think God might want him to use his blessings to bless others. His money was his business. God did not need to be consulted on matters financial.

This foolish, self-absorbed, greedy man would fit well into American culture. He could easily live next door. He might even go to church with us. For he thinks just like we do.

Most of us are not as blatant in our abuse of money as the rich fool. We know enough to thank God for our blessings, to throw some surplus God’s direction before doing what we please with the rest, to cover our greed with a generosity that does not require sacrifice.

But beneath that, our attitudes about money are strikingly similar to the rich fool. Watch the “thought-steps.”

“I earned this” leads to “This is mine” which leads, in turn, to “I have a right to determine what to do with what I have.” That results (more often than not) in a decision to store away for ourselves, provide for our own futures, use our money as if God doesn’t have a preference—or a say. We may not be building bigger barns. But we are building bigger portfolios, bigger retirement accounts, bigger savings. Regardless, the result is the same: “I’ll say to myself: ‘Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’”

A Matter of Stewardship

But we don’t have to think like rich fools! There is another, faith-formed way of thinking about money that considers God.

Begin with the assumption that God created everything. He made the world and all that is in it. He created the time, energy, intelligence, and giftedness from which every material good flows.

If that is true, then, in some sense, everything belongs to him. Every resource, asset, and valuable. Every quality and attribute and ability. Every grain . . . every crop . . . every barn.

Graciously, God shares those rich resources with us. He gives good gifts to his children: daily bread and clothes to wear and a roof above our heads. Salaries, inheritances, investments—all means by which God shares his riches. They are signs of his grace and goodness, not of our competence and personal worth.

He invites us, then, to use those gifts as good stewards; not to see ourselves as owners but to regard God as the owner and ourselves as his agents. We manage, oversee, invest, take care of resources he has entrusted to us.

And then, ultimately, we use those resources for his purposes. “What does God want me to do with the treasures he has entrusted to me?” becomes the critical question. “God wants me to enjoy, but he also wants me to bless.” From that flows a sense of responsibility, of partnership, of mission.

This is how people who are “rich towards God” think about money. And it’s about as far from the thinking of the rich fool as truth is from the prosperity gospel. |L

Dr. Tim Woodroof is senior minister of Otter Creek Church of Christ in Nashville, Tennessee.

OTHER COLUMNS:
November 8, 2009 - Why I believe in God
October 25, 2009 - Commuting in days of evil
October 11, 2009 - Poets and don’t know it
September 27, 2009 - How Hollywood proves abortion is wrong
September 13, 2009 - Significance
August 30, 2009 - Dance alternatives
August 16, 2009 - Gluttons for gossip
August 2, 2009 - Truth from Twilight
July 19, 2009 - Visitor-friendly churches
July 5, 2009 - The Shack
June 21, 2009 - When forgiveness fails
June 7, 2009 - Re-imagining Education (Part Six)
May 24, 2009 - We are not alone
May 3, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part five)
April 26, 2009 - Conviction
April 12, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part four)
March 29, 2009 - An evangelistic proposal
March 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part three)
March 1, 2009 - He makes me sick
February 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (Part Two)
February 1, 2009 - Spiritual insecurity
January 18, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part one)
January 4, 2009 - Church and politics
December 21, 2008 - Heaven’s music
December 7, 2008 - The church and marriage
November 23, 2008 - God and the president
November 9, 2008 - A time for courage
October 26, 2008 - Likes and dislikes: the Prince Caspian movie
October 12, 2008 - What’s that noise?
September 28, 2008 - Modesty matters (part two)
September 14, 2008 - All it takes is some TLC
August 31, 2008 - Modesty matters (part one)
August 17, 2008 - What would you fight for?
August 3, 2008 - Staying through the credits
July 20, 2008 - Honor to whom honor
July 6, 2008 - Tyler Perry and the movies you’re missing
June 22, 2008 - The peaceable kingdom
May 25, 2008 - Another generation grew up
May 25, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part two)
May 11, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part one)
April 27, 2008 - What is truth?
April 13, 2008 - And the geek shall inherit the earth
March 30, 2008 - A charactered God
March 16, 2008 - The college choice (part two)
March 2, 2008 - Good news can be hard to hear
February 17, 2008 - The college choice (part one)
February 5, 2008 - Ten suggestions for a godly standard of living
January 20, 2008 - Expelled: that “Bueller” guy’s pro-God movie
January 6, 2008 - Choosing a lifestyle
December 23, 2007 - Teachable TV?
December 9, 2007 - Owners or stewards?
November 25, 2007 - Christians teaching Christians to change TV and film
October 28, 2007 - Navigating under the radar
October 14, 2007 - The things God values
September 30, 2007 - Movie moments
September 16, 2007 - God’s economics
September 2, 2007 - The best books to read
August 19, 2007 - There’s a rat in ‘separate’
August 5, 2007 - The art of reading
July 22, 2007 - Atheist chic
July 8, 2007 - Why books matter: the sequel
June 10, 2007 - Books: why they matter
June 3, 2007 - The non-impact of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”
May 27, 2007 - The universal gospel
May 13, 2007 - Loving Muslims through culture
April 29, 2007 - Hope
April 15, 2007 - God in the dark
April 1, 2007 - The gospel goes to the movies
March 18, 2007 - What the Bible movies can teach us
March 4, 2007 - What will you hurt for?
February 18, 2007 - Why Heroes . . .
February 4, 2007 - Give peace a chance
January 21, 2007 - When fairy tales are true
January 7, 2007 - WYSIWYG lives
December 31, 2006 - What’s coming next?
December 17, 2006 - Mercy, mercy
December 3, 2006 - Proof of evolution!
November 19, 2006 - Hungering for God
November 5, 2006 - Violence and government, war and peace
October 22, 2006 - The mighty meek
October 8, 2006 - The Battlestar and the Bible
September 24, 2006 - Soap for the soul
September 10, 2006 - Right vs. cool
August 27, 2006 - The painful truth
August 13, 2006 - More Lies Hollywood Tells
July 30, 2006 - Christian counter culture
July 16, 2006 - The lies Hollywood tells