Show me the Money?

SHOW ME THE MONEY?

"Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers-not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be. not greedy for money, but eager to serve."
I Peter 5:2(NIV)

Apostle Peter wrote these words to the elders in the churches of his time. I love the statement at the end, "not greedy for money, but eager to serve." This statement is how I feel right now.

I was stuck in a job where I was working mandatory overtime everyday, half my day is tied up in my job, including some weekends. I believe in an honest days work, but I have no desire to work all this overtime everyday or every week.

When people ask me how my job is going, I share my frustrations about all the overtime, and 99% of the time their response is, "well, look at all that money your making", everytime I hear that I want to vomit.

First off, I'm a temp worker, I don't make the kind of money the full-timers do and even if I did, I still wouldn't want all the overtime, I wouldn't care if I made $50 an hour. I am a lot of things, but one thing I am not is money-driven or money-hungry. I would love to be out of debt and not live paycheck to paycheck, but I am not motivated by money. I work to live, not live to work.

It really has begun to bother me the amount of people who make that statement about "all that money." It amazes me at the amount of people in the world who spend more time at work than they do with their family or involved in church or resting or relaxing. It depresses me to think of the amount of people who are motivated by money and work all the overtime they get, many of them because they are living beyond their means or simply can't get enough money.

I want to work, I want to earn a living, but I also want to serve the Lord and have balance in my life. That is why this scripture speaks to me today. I want to be eager to serve and not greedy for more. I want to have balance of work, rest, and play in my life. I want to give God my best, not what I have left over, if any.

We can't escape money, we need money to pay bills, buy food, and take care of expenses, but money should never by our motivation, and it certainly shouldn't be the the center of our lives.

Money isn't evil, the bible tells us the "love of money is the root of all evil" (I Tim. 6:10), there is a difference. There is nothing wrong with making money and having money, but when money becomes our focus, our God, and our life, then things begin to suffer: our marriage, our parenting, our hobbies, our relationships, and most of all I think our service and loyalty to God.

If anything motivates me, I want it to be my desire to serve God. If I spend all my time doing something, I don't want it to be living at a job, but living for God. I want to honor God in my work, but no job should ever be the most important thing in our lives.

How are you doing at your job? How much time do you spend at work? How motivated by money are you? How important is money to you? How much time do you spend serving God? Some things to think about this week.