Day 3 of 7, a study on trusting God with your money.
Most people know the parable that comes right after this verse, the one about the man who built bigger barns for his surplus grain and died the night he finished them. I've written about that parable before on this site, and I'll probably write about it again, because I keep recognizing pieces of my own retirement account in it. Today I want to sit with the sentence Jesus said right before he told the story, the one that usually gets skipped on the way to the barns.
"Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions."
Luke 12:15
"Watch out" is not how Jesus usually opens a parable. It's the kind of thing you say to someone about to step in front of traffic. He's not warning against having money. He's warning against a specific kind of blindness, the kind that convinces you life is made out of the things you're accumulating instead of the God who gave them to you.
I don't think I'm the rich fool most days. But "watch out" isn't a warning for people who've already fallen. It's a warning for people still walking toward the edge without noticing.
Today's Question
Where in your own financial thinking would "watch out" be the most honest response?
A Short Prayer
Lord, keep me from the blindness that measures life by what's stored up instead of by you. Watch out for me on the days I won't watch out for myself. Amen.
God bless,
Paul