Money and the Heart

If you've been around this blog for long you may have noticed that I like to ask why. Specifically, I like to know and understand why people do what they do. Why I do what I do. I am very interested in motivations of the heart. From the heart comes forth all actions in daily life. I am no expert but I just enjoy the study.

I have come to deeply understand, by difficult circumstances and foolish decisions, a key truth about money and motivation. I am still growing in this truth and I wish I didn't have to be reminded of it all the time: How I handle money is a direct window into the condition of my heart and its stance toward God. This truth applies even to the "good" things I do with money (i.e. paying off debt and giving.)



Quotes on Money and the Heart:

A man’s treatment of money is the most decisive test of his character- how he makes it and how he spends it.

James Moffatt

People are funny; they spend money they don’t have to buy things they don’t need to impress people they don’t like.

Author Unknown

The use of your money and how you give it is one of the best ways of evaluating your relationship with Christ and your spiritual trustworthiness. If you love Christ with all your heart, your giving will reflect that. If you love Christ and the work of His Kingdom more than anything else, your giving will show that. If you are truly submitted to the lordship of Christ, if you are willing to obey Him completely in every area of your life, your giving will reveal it. We will do many things before we will give someone else, even Christ, the rights over every dollar we have and ever will have. But if you have done that, it will be expressed in your giving. That’s why it’s said that your checkbook tells more about you than almost anything else.

Donald Whitney

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, 1991, p. 146, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com, All rights reserved. For more information please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.

The reason use of money and the things it buys is one of the best indicators of spiritual maturity and Godliness is that we exchange such a great part of our lives for it. Because we invest most of our days working in exchange for money, there is a very real sense in which our money represents us. Therefore, how we use it expresses who we are, what our priorities are, and what’s in our hearts. As we use our money and resources Christianly, we prove our growth in Christlikeness.

Donald Whitney

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, 1991, p. 140, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights reserved. For more information please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.

God owns it all and (you) are stewards of His resources...Because you are stewards of the resources God has entrusted to you, every financial decision you make is actually a spiritual decision. For many, that's a revolutionary concept. How you manage your finances is a pretty good barometer for the condition of your spiritual life.

Dennis Rainey

Preparing for Marriage, 1997, p. 195, 198, Gospel Light/Regal Books, Ventura, CA 93003, Used by Permission

Jesus Christ said more about money than about any other single thing because, when it comes to a man's real nature, money is of first importance. Money is an exact index to a man's true character. All through Scripture there is an intimate correlation between the development of a man's character and how he handles his money.

Richard C. Halverson

God can have our money and not have our hearts, but He cannot have our hearts without having our money.

Kent Hughes

Disciplines of a Godly Man, Crossway Books, 1991, p. 186.

The Altar of Cynicism

I've posted numerous times on my hearts stickiness to cynicism. Ever since that one day when someone got in my face and called me a cynical S.O.B. I took it seriously and decided to get to the bottom of it.

What have I discovered? This fantastic article: The Altar of Cynicism clearly points to the central issue.

I define my cynicism as: discovering, in the end, that all of life is meaningless without God and willfully choosing to live as if it is true. Another way to look at it is that cynicism is a perseverating choice not to love and apply by faith the remedy - The real Gospel of Jesus Christ - to all of life.

The following quote displays the remedy:

In our bitterness and resentment we go to the temple of cynicism. But there is a gospel for cynics. There is a gospel that says to us, “Of course, all of these will fail you. Of course, they are unfaithful and untrustworthy, and so are you.” So, in the words of Solomon, let’s hear “the conclusion of the matter.”

Don’t give up; there is one more temple. It is the temple that welcomes the unfaithful and untrustworthy. Above the door are words of grace: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” (Isa. 55:1–2).

The cynic comes to this temple and finally finds One who will not betray him and who will never fail him.

Cynicism is day-to-day faithlessness in the true and living God. Yet, cynicism is faith in my own made up unfaithful god. Cynicism says "Of course there is something deeply wrong with everything in this world. Of course. It also says "I MUST DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!"

The gospel says "You can't. It's been done. Rest."

Do the Next Thing

I often poke fun at a few pat answers I've picked up over my life when dealing with life's difficulties:

• "It is what it is"
• "Could be worse"
• "Just keep plugging away"

Each one has a story behind how it made a way into my thinking. I laugh at them and still I see some truth in each. More or less, I use them loosely and don't give much thought to how deeply planted they have become in my life - when I do stop to think though, I have a tendency to apply these sayings in my life when I am perseverating in cynicism, anger, self-pity, and depression. I speak these words when life is particularly hard and yet I must go on and "keep plugging away."

I had forgotten about another phrase I used to say: "Just Do the Next Thing" In a sense this phrase is similar to "just keep plugging away" but I've always thought "doing the next thing" to be more helpful. I wonder why I stopped speaking this to myself?

Thankfully though I read this post first thing this morning. Then I found this poem:

Doe the Nexte Thynge
(author unknown)

From an old English parsonage down by the sea
There came in the twilight a message to me;
Its quaint Saxon legend, deeply engraven,
Hath, it seems to me, teaching from Heaven.
And on through the doors the quiet words ring
Like a low inspiration: “DO THE NEXT THING.”

Many a questioning, many a fear,
Many a doubt, hath its quieting here.
Moment by moment, let down from Heaven,
Time, opportunity, and guidance are given.
Fear not tomorrows, child of the King,
Trust them with Jesus, do the next thing

Do it immediately, do it with prayer;
Do it reliantly, casting all care;
Do it with reverence, tracing His hand
Who placed it before thee with earnest command.
Stayed on Omnipotence, safe 'neath His wing,
Leave all results, do the next thing

Looking for Jesus, ever serener,
Working or suffering, be thy demeanor;
In His dear presence, the rest of His calm,
The light of His countenance be thy psalm,
Strong in His faithfulness, praise and sing.
Then, as He beckons thee, do the next thing.

When the darkness does not lift, do the next thing.

BTW, be sure to read this fantastic review of Piper's When the Darkness Will Not Lift.

Faithless Idealism

What bugs me most about my cynicism is what it says about my faith in God's providential care over the world. The depths of my cynicism reveals how little I choose to remember and live by the fact (it is a fact) that God actively commands everything under the sun. In the end, among all the ways to define what cynicism is and how it manifests itself, ultimately, cynicism describes people who have given up believing and hoping in God’s activity in the world. I have not given up hope.

A level of cynicism is understandable. My cynical attitude has its roots in idealistic desires which are frustrated daily because things in this world are not as they ought to be.

Everything is so weary and tiresome! No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not conten. (Ecclesiastes 1:8)

But the fact that God sovereignly rules the good and evil of this world cannot be denied. Understanding and living by His providential rule of the world leads me back to Him and His grace. I am called to repentance and obedience and to swear my alligience to Him.

This Bunny Trail Has A Bad Odor

It is time to get off this cynicism bunny trail - it stinks! It has really brought me down and it was not all it was suppose to be. Sure it goes without saying but the jaunt was necessary.

I will post one last time on cynicism though to wrap things, but before I do, here is one more resource I found for either perpetuating my cynicism or laughing me out of it. These "de-motivation" posters are for sale at the same site.

A Cynic's Hang Out

This is a helpful place to learn about cynicism.

The Cynic's Sanctuary

How Others Have Described Cynicism

Based on these quotes, things are NOT looking good:

• "Cynic, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be." ~ Ambrose Bierce

• "Cynical is a word used by the frightened to describe the realistic." ~ Snog, Australian industrial rock band

• "I once said cynically of a politician, 'He'll double-cross that bridge when he comes to it.'" ~ Oscar Levant

• "I'm not cynical. I'm just experienced." ~ Anonymous

• "The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it." ~ George Bernard Shaw

• "A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing." ~ Oscar Wilde

• "Cyn-ic: An idealist whose rose-colored glasses have been removed, snapped in two, and stomped into the ground, immediately improving his vision." ~ Rick Bayan, The Cynic's Sanctuary

• "There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing." ~ Maya Angelou

• "Remember, beneath every cynic there lies a romantic, and probably an injured one." ~ Glenn Beck

• "The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man and never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game. The cynic puts all human actions into two classes - openly bad and secretly bad." ~ Henry Ward Beecher

• "A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin." ~ H. L. Mencken

• "Idealist: a cynic in the making." ~ Irving Layton

Related Posts:

Understanding Cynicism

Realistic Negativism

Skeptic of Cynicism

Understanding Cynicism

I've highlighted (as indicated by the red text) the portions of wikipedia's description of modern cynicism that really concerns me:

Presently the word generally describes, somewhat pejoratively, the opinions of those disinclined to believe in human sincerity, in virtue, or in altruism: individuals who maintain that only self-interest motivates human behavior. A modern cynic typically has a highly contemptuous attitude towards social norms, especially those which serve more of a ritualistic purpose than a practical one, and will tend to dismiss a substantial proportion of popular beliefs, conventional morality and accepted wisdom as irrelevant or obsolete nonsense. Many cynics do not like the way the world really is, however, and wish it could be changed. They want to see the world for how it is (or how they perceive it to really be) rather than delude themselves.

In informal use, derived from the meanings described hereabove, cynicism may refer to heartless calculating behavior or thinking because someone who has no faith in the goodness of other human beings might have less restraints to behave without compassion. These multiple meanings can lead to the ironic situation of a voter accusing a politician of being cynical because they are alleged to be heartless, even though this means the voter is also cynical because he/she does not trust the politician.

Despite the negative portrayal of cynics, some would argue that such people simply "refuse to look through rosy-tinted spectacles" and do not fear to demolish popular beliefs no matter how sacred society considers such alleged misconceptions. Cynics themselves tend to take this view, regarding themselves as enlightened free thinkers, and their critics as deluded social pretenders who "bury their heads in the sand". However, an excess of cynicism in an individual can cause social or psychological difficulties when cynics see themselves as depersonalised and self-serving inhabitants of a meaningless, fictitious, and shallow world. It can be argued that an excess of cynicism actually leads to a disassociation from reality, because it leads to easy rejection of hard answers.

Related Posts:

Realistic Negativism

Skeptic of Cynicism

Realistic Negativism

Isn't cynicism as simple as a negative way of expressing what is true?

For example, ever been around when lightning strikes really close, I mean with in one hundred yards? You know what is about to happen because you can feel your hair stand up and there is no mistaking that sulfur smell. It is at that point when you make the comment to your friend, "We're about to get fried." What would give him reason to call you a cynical S.O.B?

Related Post: Skeptic of Cynicism

Skeptic of Cynicism

Over the next week or so I am going to take an introspective bunny trail with the goal of finding out the truth behind a razor-like comment that someone made about me:

"Pat, your such a cynical S.O.B."

I don't really care about the S.O.B. part because that is just juvenile name calling. I am concerned about the cynical label though. It is serious. Obviously, the person who slung the mud must know something about me and can see some connection between the meaning of cynicism and my character. I must rightly presume that they even know what they are saying and they understand the real meaning of cynicism. It is obvious, isn't it, that a person means what they say. (Did you get that? There is my cynicism shining through. I think. Now that is my skepticism. Uggghhh!)

I always have to start with a solid definition to lay the ground work. The dictionary says that a cynic is:

1. A person who believes all people are motivated by selfishness.
2. A person whose outlook is scornfully and often habitually negative.
3. A member of a sect of ancient Greek philosophers who believed virtue to be the only good and self-control to be the only means of achieving virtue.

Yes to #1, Possibly to #2, and No to #3. I can already see, my skepticism has to do with #2. Am I really this way? Is it a serious character flaw or am I just in a rut? Am I cynical to everybody I know or is it just something I exhibit when I interact with the mud slinger name caller, in which case, it would be his problem because he acts in such a way as to cause me to be cynical of his every move? (There, my cynic self rising to the top.)

I will set out to learn more.

Related Post: Realistic Negativism