Cultivate Faithfulness
March 25, 2010

A paradigm defines seeing something in a different way. For instance, one day a man was driving his high powered Porsche along a winding mountain road in Colorado. Suddenly, as he sped around a turn a woman in a dilapidated pickup crossed into his lane of traffic. He hit his brakes, swerved, and barely missed running into her truck. As he passed her she yelled out her window, "Pig!" Insulted he yelled back. An instant later he looked at the road in front of him and saw a pig standing in the middle of his lane. In that moment, he had a paradigm shift. Suddenly his world, and the words of the woman looked very different.

In the spiritual realm, God wants every man to have a paradigm shift. Specifically, he wants us to change the way we view success. We tend to view success on the basis of money and power. Money works because it's an easy way to measure how we've done compared to other men. It only takes a moment for someone to evaluate our success by observing the cars we drive, home we live in, and clothes we wear. Power is a bit tougher to evaluate because its symbols are more subtle. But as a general rule of thumb, the more money someone has the more power they wield.

The problem is if a man acquires great wealth and influence he realizes his heart is elastic. No matter how much he stuffs into it, it can always hold more. Solomon said this when he noted, "He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income" (Ecc. 5:10). Rabbi Harold Kushner said, "There are two tragedies in life. One is not getting what you want, and the other is getting it." Few sights are sadder than that of a man who spent his life acquiring great wealth and power only to realize it never filled the hole in his heart.

Equally heartbreaking is the man who suffers from self-loathing and despair because he failed in his attempts to acquire great wealth. Instead of driving a new Mercedes he drives a used Pinto and lives in an apartment. He fells like a failure as he struggles to make ends meet. Like the refrain from the country western song, he knows that, "There's too much month at the end of the money."

Through the apostle Paul God provides us with a paradigm shift ... one that should alter the way we view life. Paul said, "So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful" (1 Cor. 4:1-2).

God doesn't care about your income, investments, or influence. He only cares about your faithfulness. That's the one thing God wants from you. He wants you to do the best you can with what you have. No more. No less. He wants you to consistently trust in Him and obey his Word. Whether you have a little or a lot, if you're faithful, God is applauding your life.

I think during this time of economic hardship, it's comforting to know God doesn't ask us to go after power, fame or wealth. He tells us to be faithful. Now that's something, by God's grace, we can all do.