Proverbs 3:13-18

“Happy are those who find wisdom,
and those who get understanding,
for her income is better than silver,
and her revenue better than gold.
She is more precious than jewels,
and nothing you desire can compare with her.
Long life is in her right hand;
in her left hand are riches and honor.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her;
those who hold her fast are called happy.” NRSV

I have some friends who made a horrible choice last year. He, a principal, she, a teacher. They fell in love. Unfortunately, they were married . . . and not to each other. It was further complicated by the fact that she was a pastor’s wife; he was the pastor’s friend. Fortunately, both families are still intact, living in other cities, trying to repair the damage.

We talking about it yesterday, another friend and I. How it is so easy to get caught up in the passions and emotions of the moment, only to find that it’s become almost impossible to extricate yourself, to find that the foment of the situation is ruling your choices, rather than your own sense of what is right, of what is good.

I think that we often (very often) take the short view of things. We make choices for the “now” rather than considering what is best over the long haul.

We are very short-sighted.

Jesus addressed this very issue in Luke:

“Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God’” (12:13-21 NRSV).

“One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

How often are we motivated by how much money we will make? Or the kind of house in which we will live? Or the newness of our car? Or the extravagance of our vacation? Or the style of our clothing? And yet, the fact is, we could likely make do (and happily so) with much less than we have.

I’m constantly astounded by how television shapes our culture and our own expectations. Like many, I enjoy watching HGTV. But it astonishes me that now we need to have homes with granite countertops when Formica did our moms just fine (and the new Formica is wonderful!), with three and four car garages (and we still can’t park our cars in them), with this and that and whatever. As if stuff mattered. As if stuff could make us happy.

This passage in Proverbs is interesting because it uses financial analogies:

“Happy are those who find wisdom,
and those who get understanding,
for her income is better than silver,
and her revenue better than gold.”

Her income is better than silver.
Her revenue better than gold.

Wisdom produces in our lives. There is a result. If we are to believe scripture (and I do), an ongoing produce. And it’s one that’s better than silver, better than gold. Why? Because, I believe, it is eternal.

The fact is, there are things upon which we can spend our lives that are better than accumulating stuff. We can become more like Christ. We can become more dependent upon the Father. We can become more loving and giving and gracious and forgiving.

In the end, it’s not how much stuff we’ve accumulated that matters. In the end, it’s how many lives we touched, how many people we served through the power of the Holy Spirit. In the end, it’s how much we loved Jesus and did His will. That’s where true riches lie.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).