Money

Money holds terrible power when it is loved. It can blind us, shackle us, fill us with anxiety and fear, torment our days and nights with misery, wear us out with chasing it. The Macedonian Christians, possessing little of it, accepted their lot with faith and trust. Their eyes were opened to see past their own misery. They saw what mattered far more than a bank account, and, out of "magnificent concern," contributed to the needs of their brothers. If through losing what this world prizes we are enabled to gain what it despises -- treasure in heaven, invisible and incorruptible -- isn't it worth any kind of suffering? What is it worth to us to learn a little bit more of what the Cross means -- life out of death, the transformation of earth's losses and heartbreaks and tragedies?God has allowed in the lives of each of us some sort of loss, the withdrawal of something we valued, in order that we may learn to offer ourselves a little more willingly, to allow the touch of death on one more thing we have clutched so tightly, and thus know fullness and freedom and joy that much sooner. We're not naturally inclined to love God and seek His Kingdom. Trouble may help to incline us -- that is, it may tip us over, put some pressure on us, lean us in the right direction.
(Elisabeth Elliot)