Living Life by Design

As many of you know, I’m in the mortgage business. I have been since 2006. I’ve been through several downturns in the economy but nothing quite like what the industry is going through now. Last year, interest rates were absurdly low so business was incredible. Companies made so much money, many decided to invest in risky outlets (hedge funds, booming stocks, etc.). Now that interest rates have climbed back up, and business has fallen to 40 year lows, those companies who made risky investments, hoping to “Ring the Register,” are either going out of business or selling. 

This reminds me of a story I read about a wealthy women who lived in Pompeii in 79 AD. It was the day Mount Vesuvius erupted and rained down rocks and lava on the unsuspecting city. “Her hands were full of rings, bracelets, necklaces, chains and other treasures. Torrents of lava were erupting and pouring down. As she fled, this woman was not prepared to leave behind her valuable jewels. Encumbered by her treasures, she was overwhelmed by the rain of ashes from the volcano and was buried under it.”

“During the course of modern building operations, her petrified body was unearthed in a sea of jewels. She lost her life in an attempt to save her treasures. She put wealth ahead of good sense, and died because of it.”

Jesus warned us that ultimately you have to choose between money and God (Matthew 6:24). In the New Testament, there is no ban on private property or making money, or even enjoying the good things in life. The command to the rich, however, is that they do not ‘put their hope in wealth’ (1 Timothy 6:17). A selfish accumulation of wealth and an unhealthy obsession with material things will never bring contentment. What promises security leads to perpetual insecurity.

True contentment only comes from putting your hope in God: ‘godliness with contentment is great gain’ (v.6). The promise of God’s word is that those who ‘put their hope in God’ (v.17) find ‘a firm foundation’ and ‘take hold of the life that is truly life’ (v.19).

In what have you put your trust in today?