The Spender, The Saver, and Finding the Sweet Spot for Both

Several years ago I was talking with someone who's been married just over a year about their finances. She's the saver, he's the more-free-to-spend-er. It seems like there's always one of each in every marriage.

Her temptation: to be a bit self-righteous. She's the more self-restrained, after all. And she's the one who's setting them up for a good life in the future.

But as we talked, it was clear that it was easy for her to be a fearful saver. There were times when she was grasping for security. It wasn't a glad, confident, hope-filled saving that motivated her to say no to buying frivolous things.

In the New Testament, Paul writes to the Galatian church. They're fighting over circumcision--Jewish boys were circumcised as a symbol of their identity as a part of God's chosen people. As non-Jews enter into the mostly-Jewish Christian community, the question looms: do they have to get circumcised?

Paul argues rabidly against it. He argues that faith, not circumcision, is now the true marker of who's a part of God's family.

He summarizes his argument with this compelling statement in Galatians 5:6:

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, butonly faith working through love.

And so it is with how we handle money. In Christ Jesus, neither spending nor saving is of any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. That can look like saving, it can look like spending.

But it's gotta' come from faith, or else it's simply another un-healthy expression of a grasping, needy, soul trying to prop itself up rather than allowing itself to be cared for by a good and beautiful God.