The Profitable Summer

For most of us summer means income.  Many of us will
come back having played through a couple new video
games, with a couple new outfits, or with a fuller
bank account.  We will have spent the summer pursuing
leisure and fun with friends that we have not seen
because of distance or busyness.
What happens when summer is over?  Videogames will
have been completed and will grow tiresome, clothes
will be thrown in the closet with the onset of cooler
weather, or the bank account will sit waiting for
robbers and moths.  We spend so much time pursuing
things that will have very, very little meaning come
August.  I am writing to encourage all you BCM’ers out
there to abandon meaninglessness.

Money:  By the fact that we are all enrolled in
college I am going to argue that we are all rich.
Every one of us.  I don’t want any arguments.  Maybe
you got financial assistance for school last semester,
but just the fact that you live in a culture that can
pay for you to go to school makes your rich by
association.  None of us are pitiable.
1 Timothy 6:6–10 Now there is great gain in godliness
with contentment, for we brought nothing into the
world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.
But if we have food and clothing, with these we will
be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into
temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and
harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and
destruction. For the love of money is a root of all
kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some
have wandered away from the faith and pierced
themselves with many pangs.
Now, you can spend this summer seeking to make
yourself richer.  You are probably richer than 90% of
the entire world already.  In your whole life you will
only be able to move up 10%.  You are on top already.
Getting rich is a silly, selfish goal.  Not only that
but it will not make you happy.  “Those who desire to
be rich fall… into many senseless and harmful desires
that plunge people into ruin and destruction.”  If you
seek wealth you are not going to be happy.  Look at
the Apprentice.  Does Trump really look happy?
America has been lying to you: money won’t make you
happy.

Jesus offers an alternative…
Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves
treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and
where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor
rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and
steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart
will be also.”
Jesus has let us know that it is Okay to pursue
treasure!  He encourages it.  He wants you to make the
smartest of all investments.  You can invest a dollar
on earthly things and get back a few minutes of
pleasure, or you can invest a dollar on heavenly
riches and you will get back an eternity of pleasure.
It is only smart not to try to accumulate fleeting
possessions this summer.  Here is an illustration from
Randy Alcorn:
Imagine that you are alive at the end of the Civil
War. You are living in the South and have accumulated
a lot of Confederate money. Now, suppose you know for
a fact that the North is going to win the war and the
end is imminent. What will you do with your
Confederate money? If you are smart, there is only one
answer. You immediately cash in your Confederate money
for something that will have value once the war is
over – gold, or U.S. currency, or jewels, or property.
You keep only enough Confederate money to meet your
short-term needs.

“Isaac,” you say, “I have always been told that it is
wrong to pursue wealth.”  It isn’t wrong to pursue
wealth!  It is wrong to pursue wealth to the hurt of
others and at the expense of God’s glory.  It is your
duty to pursue wealth to the glory of God and to the
benefit of others!
So, this summer, “if [you] have food and clothing,
with these [you] will be content.”  If you try to hold
on to the money you get beyond that it will grow wings
and fly away.  If you send it on ahead you will enjoy
it forever more.  So give money to a Christ centered
church and Christ-centered ministries that will spread
the gospel and clothe the needy.  If you would like to
read the books (they are small ones) that have
influenced my opinion on this then read John Piper’s
Dangerous Duty of Delight, or Randy Alcorn’s The
Treasure Principle.