seank.mitchell@yahoo.com

       When it comes to the financial pilgrimage, how is one to define enough? While the billboards, television commercials, and lifestyles lived by more than a few around us market the necessity and pleasures of possessions, how is it possible to ever even have enough? To really understand the financial pilgrimage and travel it for all its’ spiritual worth, we should first look to the end to find the answers to our questions. 

      When we reach the end of the pilgrimage, what will be important to us? What do we want our legacy to be? How do we want our biographies to read? What do we want future financial disciples of Christ to learn from our examples? To answer these questions is to understand our destiny and to help us determine when enough is enough. 

      On a recent fundraising visit, after asking a couple for a large sacrificial gift to a church project, the husband shared his personal convictions about money and the accumulation of material things. This man, who would be retiring in the next year, shared how over the years he had always been chasing more money, savings, and a deeper retirement plan. Somewhere along the timeline he understood that he would never have enough—that at the point of reaching one financial goal, he would discover another. Money, he learned, would never make him fully happy, because he would never fully have enough money. The financial pilgrimage, as he would probably write here, is greatest traveled with Christ as its master, not money. 

      Jesus told his disciples that they could not serve two masters at once. Christ or money? Which was it going to be? Which will it be for us? To choose Christ as master within a consumer-driven society takes discipline, humility, and courage. It doesn’t take a miracle. Christ can be worshiped over the financial portfolio; God can be trusted more than savings. God is Creator of our souls, peace, financial portfolios, Heaven—the one who gives us more than enough. We will always have more than enough. Different from the pattern of the world’s definition of enough—different because of whom our Master is. 

      The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, announces that God will supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. God will supply our needs. It is done, finished, we have more than enough. But if Christ isn’t the master, this verse’s power will weaken in our hearts and we will become disillusioned over the difference between wants and needs. God supplies our needs, provides us with everything we need to complete our mission on this earth, experience His love for us, and share His love with others. Each of us, as we allow Christ to assume the title and position of master of our souls, discovers the riches of God in the heart of our eternal and everyday needs. And sometimes, Christ the master, will encourage us to let some things and desires go, because some of it isn’t needed for the journey. Some of it, if held on to, will only weigh us down. In the relationship with Christ, we are set free, freed to our destiny, destined to be a strong limb on the genealogy tree of those who followed Christ and left behind an inspiring tale for others to live by. 

      Who is our financial master? Here a few questions for the pilgrimage, for the sake of finding the answer and being set free:

1. What are three ways in which Christ has influenced your financial decisions?
2. How much time do you worry about your personal finances? How much time do you spend praying over your personal finances?
3. What are your financial goals for your lifetime? Why are these your goals? 
4. What one financial decision could you make today that would be pleasing to Christ? 

     Copyright 2007 by Sean K. Mitchell

Sean K. Mitchell is a creative writer and author of The Financial Pilgrimage, a book that doesn’t just talk about money management, but communicates a fresh, financial approach to Christian discipleship. For more information on the book, visit www.thefinancialpilgrimage.com.