Our culture has weird ways of kicking us in the pants. Everything from toxic expectations to unhealthy relationships with people and everything around us.

One of those big challenges is when it comes to money.

Yes, money! Let me ask you this, do you want to be rich? If I polled a thousand people, I’m pretty sure the answer would be, without much dissension, YES!

However, if you’re not rich, how do you actually tend to view people who are raking it in? Especially if you know that they aren’t working half as hard as you are.

Money makes us like and hate the fact that others have it, and we don’t. Then if we do get it, we often feel guilty for having it.

Is Money Really Evil?

Let’s just put this out there to begin with, money is NOT evil. But on the flip side, money is not Righteous either.

The fact that someone has a lot of it does not say a single thing about that person’s morality, spirituality, personality, or mentality. I know rich people who are saints, sinners, a little crazy, and those who you’d never even suspect.

So why does our culture aggrandize money at the same time it vilifies it?

Often people with money, are perceived to have more power. And power, as many have heard does have a corrupting effect on people. So yes, there is a correlation between the negative perception of money as it relates to that. But remember, not all people who have money are seeking power.

There’s also the argument to be made, that we justify our lack of money as being more pious. We wear our poverty with a badge of honor. It’s an excuse we tell ourselves and our children so that they can feel good about their circumstances.

This mental conversation though, can lead us to guilt, if we do figure out the secrets to successful money accumulation. When we feel that guilt, we can find ourselves sabotaging our chances at making more money, or learning what we need to keep it.

But Money can have a negative affect on us. This is true. But not in itself. That negative effect is derived from us, which brings us to the heart of the matter:

THE LOVE OF MONEY – Is The Root Of All Evil

Am I splitting hairs here? I don’t think so. The love of money is directly correlated to our pride. There is something called the pride cycle, which repeats itself in individuals, families, cultures, and nations. This pride cycle is perhaps one of the easiest things to spot, and yet, it has been the downfall of entire peoples.

So what is the pride cycle, and how does it relate to money?

• Lets assume we start off poor
  • Great, when we’re poor we’re humble. We’re looking for ways to better ourselves. We know we don’t have the answers, but we really want to get there.
• Next, we find the answers, we start finding success.
  • Things are still looking good, but we’re not actively searching so much for answers, as we feel we’ve about made it.
• Uh oh, now we’re at the point of the cycle.
  • Where we are on top of the world. We’re rich, we’re prideful, because we have all the answers, and we know it. We even start to look down on those around us who haven’t made it, and think less of them, because they were never able to escape the rat race.
• Bam! How great was the fall thereof.
  • We eventually realize that we were nothing special, as everything is lost. How could this happen? But this fall from on high leads us back to the beginning of the cycle of being:
• Humble again.

Money plays into this cycle in a very fundamental way. When we love money, we attach our self-importance to the accumulation of it. As our self-importance grows, so does our pride and thus our less desirable natures.

So how does one become rich, while avoiding this pride cycle?

A big part of this is for you to find ways of remaining humble. How do we stay humble?

Its tough, but there are some practices we can put into place while we’re still humble to keep ourselves on the right path.

1. We serve those around us.
   1. Staying in touch with those less fortunate than us, keeps a sense of love within our hearts for all people.
2. Give back.
   1. When we realize that everything we have is a gift from God, we don’t have to feel so stingy about it. We can donate to people or causes, and charities that help others. 
3. Ask yourself, why you?
   1. If you believe in God, and that he has blessed you, then ask why? FYI, the answer is not because your just such a good person. The answer is often so that you can use your wealth to build up His kingdom. That can look like a lot of different things.

Note that all these things that keep you humble, go back to the root of the solution: Serve and love your fellow beings.

Its hard to elevate yourself and feel prideful when love is firmly rooted in your heart. And if you love your God and your neighbor more than you love your money, then you will find that money never was the evil part of your partnership with it.

Questionnaire

Here is a simple list of questions that you can use to evaluate what your relationship is with money. I’m not going to give you the answers to this, but use these to give yourself some introspection. Do a deep dive and see what your answers tell you about you and your money attitude:

Do you feel jealous around people who have more than you?

Do you believe that most people who have a lot of money, attained it by unethical means?

Do you play the lottery?

Do you spend more time each week clipping coupons than cleaning your house?

Do you have credit card debt?

Do you live paycheck to paycheck?

Do you find yourself needing the newest model of truck, even when you haven’t paid off your house?

Do you think the economy is unfair?

Check out my YouTube video, where I talk more about this. Leave a comment there and let us know if you found out anything new about your relationship to money, and what you might want to do about it.