I enjoy material wealth. My wife and I recently bought a house, something I thought would never happen, I bought a motorcycle, we go out for dinners and take regular holidays with the kids… all of that. By all accounts, we’re in a good place financially. All simply by-products of Gods love for us and his Grace on our lives.
Put simply, true wealth is spiritual growth. An opportunity, which manifests itself in my everyday life, challenging me to grow or to crash like shares in the stock market. Advancing the opportunity to grow my retirement portfolio in the kingdom of Heaven.
Here’s an example of what I mean.
Growing up I lived in an atmosphere of marital abuse and physical violence. (Not uncommon) My siblings and I hid during regular outburst of anger and beatings. As a small child I would often find myself between my mothers partner and my mother. I would try to defend her only to be kicked, thrown or punched across the room and told, I will kill you if you get in my way again!
My most vivd memory of this period of my life is not the violence or the language, but an old, light green wardrobe with a cupboard on one side with a bar hanger, five brown drawers running down the other side with round wooden knobs. Underneath the small drawers and the cupboard there ran one big drawer which ran the length of the cupboard. And the door was covered in bubbles gum stickers.
If you’re young, you won’t know this but you used to be able to get bubble gum and with them came different sets of cards and stickers: called Odd Rod’s, wacky cars driven by wacky monsters. Often my brothers would trade cards with their friends and we would take the stickers and add them to the wardrobe door. As kids, whenever we played hide and seek, I would always hide in the cupboard because it had a handle on the inside and you could pull it shut behind you. I would also hide there when he flew into fits of rage, while my mum deflected attention away from me.
When he had finished and he had left the house mum would call for me. She would find me hiding in the green cupboard covered in bubble gum stickers. She would come to me in tears I could smell the salt from the blood on her face. I would feel her shudder in pain from the ferocity of his beating as she lifted me to her hip, in that moment we would just hug each other both of us in tears.
So fast track forward to today. I’m old (no specific age given, just old! ) I’m married with two beautiful children I gave my heart to the Lord decades back ( another story for another time and design). But here’s the thing right. I hold absolutely no hatred towards my mums abusive partner because behaviour like that is not natural, its taught. I often wonder who taught him? With compassion in my heart, I can see his life as a child and it was probably similar to mine. The only difference is the mentality of his youth stuck, he chose to give himself over to it.
Don’t get me wrong, walking that and dealing with that baggage was by no means instant or easy. It would be many years, decades of low self esteem, self hatred, self loathing explosive and destructive behaviour before that was even touched.
But when I did finally hit rock bottom It was a simple prayer that saved my life an act of blind trust a verbal agreement between myself and God that began the road to healing.
Was it easy? No
Did it hurt? Sometimes
Do I regret that decision? Never
Giving my heart to Christ was the best investment decision I ever made the regular dividends continue to grow me to heal me and produce a better man and a better future.
By no means am I perfect from time to time old habits make an appearance, especially when I’m tired, under pressure or hungry.
Like a bad financial review, in the global market, feeding my thoughts , asking me to question the validity of my decisions and wether or not I will choose to trust God.
This is Gods return for my investment true prosperity, free of anger, free of suicidal and hateful thoughts toward myself and others, a wife and family I love and who love me and a thankful heart for everything God has done and continues to do.
I’m not a preacher. I have no intentions to be a preacher. All I know is what I was and what I am now. You be the judge: do you think that’s a life worth investing in?
3 John:2
Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.