Worry and Wealth

Thursday 6/13/2013 7:56 AM

As I get older I wonder more about what retirement will be for me.  I enjoy teaching a lot but eventually I will not be able to do so full time.  One of the things I think about is whether or not my pension will be enough to live on.  Last year Jaci and I looked at the next few years with a financial planner.  It seems that we will be adequately cared for but he suggested that we start to put a larger percentage of our income into an IRA or some other tax-sheltered investment.  We currently give a fairly substantial percentage of our income to charity and there is the temptation to cut back on that giving so that we can put more into our retirement.  It seems that I waffle between trusting God to care for me and worrying about whether there will be enough after I retire.

The theme of my devotions this week is anxiety and today I read Matthew 13 and the parable of the sower.  In explaining the parable Jesus said, “The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.”  Ironically my worries are about wealth.  I think I am deceived, thinking that sufficient wealth will rid me of worry.  The truth is if I trusted God for my future there would be no worrying about my retirement.  In her book The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, Hannah Whitall Smith writes, “And remember, there are two things which are more utterly incompatible than even oil and water, and these two are trust and worry. … When a believer really trusts anything, he ceases to worry about that thing which he has trusted.  And when he worries, it is plain proof that he does not trust.”  I often say that God has taken care of me for the first fifty-seven years of my life so he can probably handle the last few years too.  Now is the time to start living like I believe it.