Have you ever imagined what life will be like without money? Think of this, how will you have become what you are today without money playing a significant part? From birth to death, resources are required to ensure that you were properly brought up and groomed in all the three dimension of your life; body, soul and mind.
Your body needs proper feeding to remain healthy and perform maximally. The body also needs clothing to be warmed and protected from the inclement of the weather. The body needs shelter and a place to rest; all these can only be achieved with money.
Same goes for the mind, to be educated in this present age; one needs substantial sums of money, from school fees, buying books and provisions to other essentials learning aids. One’s soul also needs nourishment with tender love, care and spiritual lifting and there is no way one can discountenance the place of money in all of these developmental stage of one’s life.
Irrespective of our perception about money, getting it is a part of our mandate in this life, and not having it can lead one to sin against God, bring reproach to one’s existence and make living unbearable at whatever levels one may have found him/herself. No wonder king Solomon said money answers all things, and he went on to say that money is a defence. When you look at our environment today, the rich often find justice faster than the poor, while a rich man gets the first seat in any gathering and the poor man is disdained.
It is not my intention to despise those who are poor, but the truth is that poverty attracts universal disdain and does not glorify anybody. Living an enduring life requires that we work hard and pray for divine blessing that will enable us sustain our principles when the torrent of temptations come our ways. Many so-called principled men and women had succumbed to pressure and gave up on their beautiful ideas because of the urgency in meeting their basic needs of life.
Although, you might say that those who gave up on their principles did so because of greed, but think of this; a man without means of livelihood, with bills piling up and unable to meet up with his basic needs would give up on his principles to overcome hunger and indignity brought about by poverty.
Money can buy you so much comfort, it can buy you some form of happiness, Love is made sweeter by the presence of money, sleep made comfortable with the right environment created or made possible by money. Name it, with loads of money in your pockets, you can have your dream cars, live in your dream houses, travel on holiday to any part of the world and enjoy the best of anything you can think of.
Many relationships are courted and sustained on the basis of availability of money, while most rich people can enjoy freedom from the harassment and stress in our society today with their money, the present structure of our society does not give room for people without money to survive. Access to health care, quality education, good living environment and societal recognition come by way of having money to spend.
The Scripture talks about a wise man that helped deliver a city from destruction as a result of his wisdom, but was forgotten because he was a poor man. Despite his ability to save millions of the city dwellers from untimely death, he was denied his due recognition because he does not have money. What a society that ranks money far above integrity and honour!
In the church, preaching about riches has become dominant; however, in spite of all these, honour, integrity and service to mankind are supreme.
There is no way we can talk about an enduring lifestyle without discussing the issue of money because it is often the object of many good, bad, and sometimes, ugly things that happen to us in this beautiful world. It can be said that many people are poor today because of ignorance and lack of basic knowledge on how to make money, while those who strived hard to make it by all means ended up selling their consciences and souls for a plate of porridge that cannot fill their belly.
Having money is surely good and can enhance our lifestyle and increase our worth in life, but then we should be wise enough to recognise its limitations and usage, despite its importance. We should be able to know that money sometimes fails, just like other material things in life. As important as money is to our existence, we should recognise the need to pursue it without compromising our health, principles, fairness to others and our relationship with God.
