Money, money, money
Must be funny
In the rich man’s world
Money, money, money
Always sunny
In the rich man’s world
Aha…
All the things I could do
If I had a little money
It’s a rich man’s world
ABBA: Money, Money, Money
I did a Google search today for ‘how to ask for God’s protection from money scams’. There are daily stories of people being scammed, losing their hard earned money and sometimes their life savings.
At the heart of this evil is the scammers’ ability to mine our anxieties about our future, and our need for love, recognition and security. A good passage to still our hearts is Matthew 6: 25 – 34:
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
My mother, who was a very astute businesswoman, has no need now for physical money. Our household bills are taken care of, to make sure she does not have to worry. We think it is safer that she doesn’t go anywhere near online banking or looking at random messages springing up like weeds on her mobile phone. Another thing about scammers: they also prey on your sincerity and kind-heartedness.
However I think my mother still likes the concept of money because it is in her DNA. So today I thought she might like to count the cash that I had in my purse.
I was surprised there were 24 x RM100 notes in my purse. My mother kept on insisting that 100 x 24 = 124. When things were broken down she managed to get the right answer. I realised I should just have handed her the cash and she could have counted it out the old fashioned way, note by note. That’s what she taught us to do when we were children, and that’s how our Mental Maths is so good (I am not good at Maths but I am very good at counting).
Then it was time for our made up Bananagrams word game and today it was to spell out currencies. My basic question was ‘what is the currency of (country)’ which sometimes drew a blank. Then KL Sister said I should draw out the symbols for $, £, ¥ and that helped. I could not figure out the symbols for the other currencies so had to dictate the spellings. It was all good fun, but at the end my mother made the word SAVE which means she really still thinks that is what we should do with money.
My prayer tonight for everyone around me is that they see that what God has given us is enough, and that he fulfils our every need. It is when we are tempted to grab more than what God has offered in his generosity that we lose sight of the dangers and traps that are set for us. Remember that Satan was the original and best scammer, tempting Adam and Eve to reject God’s goodness to pursue an offer of something ostensibly better which turned out to be false. All scams are based on lies, and hopefully the more we pursue what is true and authentic, the more aware we are when something doesn’t look or sound right.