Financially Dependent
Why do we weigh our expenses carefully, plan meals around our budget, and find creative ways to bump up our savings rate? The FIRE lifestyle is all about making conscious choices now so we can have access to more freedom later on. Many of us in this country are blessed beyond measure with opportunities to save aggressively enough to potentially retire early or pursue projects outside a traditional paying job. Financial independence, as I write about it on this blog, is about freedom to forgo paid employment earlier than normal, if you feel like it.
Of course, we are never truly “financially independent” from our Creator. All of our resources belong to God, and we are merely stewards of them for a handful of decades. Some early Christian ascetics eschewed material things and worldly relationships to focus on spiritual enrichment. On the opposite side of the spectrum, some hopeful but deluded people stumbled into prosperity gospel scams, misinterpreting Scripture as a promise of worldly wealth for pious believers.
So should Christians not worry about financial management, because God is handling it, one way or the other? Either we should immediately dispossess ourselves of wealth, or we should trust that God will provide it to us, because he promised and now he owes us if we can hold up our end of the bargain? Surely this is no different than refusing to raise our children wisely, or take care of our physical bodies and dwellings, because God will make sure everything works out.
Christians and non-Christians alike experience windfalls and tragedies. God’s ways are not like our ways, and we struggle to understand when the bad guy gets away with murder or the good guy gets cancer. Job’s children getting killed and his wealth disappearing, followed by his painful physical suffering, seemingly so God can make a point, feels unbearably unfair. The resolution– his health and finances restored and new kids provided– seems weird to most of us who wouldn’t be particularly comforted about the deaths of our children by the knowledge that we’ll get new ones later on. We want to believe that if we worship God to the best of our ability, we’ll avoid the worst trials. But that isn’t the promise we have.
We are commanded to be faithful and content with what we have, not covetous of our neighbors’ stuff. Scripture does point out that God has designed our world so that we have as much control as we can handle over our futures. 2 Corinthians 9:6 says “the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully,” but this is not investment advice. Paul is writing to this church community about giving generously and cheerfully, trusting God to provide the blessings that will best glorify Himself.
If we are faithful with our finances, good things will happen, even if we don’t ever achieve millionaire status, early retirement, or whatever else we thought was part of the goal. God knows our hearts and our capabilities. As Mr. Sense and I save, give, and invest, we are hopeful, but not unconditionally assured, that financial independence will be in our spiritual best interest. We must guard against becoming greedy and selfish, which would be much worse for us than never being able to retire. What’s in our hearts is more important than what’s in our brokerage accounts, and true freedom isn’t tied to our net worth.
