Our wealth-holding story will end. We’ve brought nothing into the world. We’ll take nothing out of it. Often, wealth holding ends much sooner. Thieves break in and steal. Rust and moths destroy. So do taxes, inflation, lawsuits, and a hundred other things.

Wealth is unreliable. Wealth holding is temporary. It might be ours at this moment. But it’s not ours to keep.

Before that inevitable loss, we get to choose. We get to choose how we want to lose our wealth. We can

Binge: Binge with it through excessive personal consumption.

Bury: Bury it in the ground and die with it.

Toil: Toil ceaselessly to bury even more.

Enjoy: Enjoy it by using it

To accomplish meaningful good,

To become rich in beautiful, good works,

To live as a good, joyful sharer of abundance,

To build up our fellowship community, and

To store up for ourselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future.

Before we lose it, we can choose to use it. This is not just a choice about our wealth. It’s a choice about our life.

One approach to wealth management is to always focus on stacking up more and more. This path ends tragically. In the meantime, it’s more anxious. It’s more self-focused and isolated. Scripture calls this path a “temptation and a trap.” It’s “foolish and harmful.” It causes people to “plunge into ruin and destruction.” It causes them to “pierce themselves with many griefs.” (1 Timothy 6:9-10).

And what is the result of all this anxious suffering? The physical result is still, inevitably, to lose it all. The spiritual result is to approach the master who provided you with the wealth (or the ability to earn wealth) and report:

“So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground.” (Matthew 25:25a NIV).

It’s to report that you never used it. You never trusted in God’s ongoing rich provision. So, you hid the money away in a corner. Why?

“For I was afraid.” (Luke 19:21a).

This approach to wealth management creates anxious hoarding and isolation. It’s a life of scarcity and fear. It leads to inevitable loss, disappointment, and suffering. This is not the good life.

Joyful wealth management starts by facing the truth.

Truth: We’re going to lose it anyway.

Consequence: Enjoying it now (by creating beautiful good works) makes sense. Why wouldn’t we do so, given the alternative?

Truth: Contentment doesn’t require that much.

Consequence: We can enjoy wealth by using it to accomplish real good and still have plenty left over for our contentment.

Truth: It was all a gift to us in the first place.

Consequence: It’s more fun to share from a gift. We can respond to the gift by using it to make the giver happy.

Truth: We can trust in our richly providing God.

Consequence: God’s supply doesn’t stop. This gives us a great abundance. Sharing from abundance is joyful!

These truths lead to joyful wealth management. They help fulfill God’s purpose of enjoyment. They help avoid the tragic options of bingeing with it, burying it just to die with it, or toiling to bury even more.

The good news is this: You get to choose. You don’t have to passively accept a life of anxious hoarding and inevitable loss. Instead, you can expand your portfolio to become rich in even more ways. You can accomplish meaningful good. You can make beautiful things happen. You can live a life that inspires others. You can aggressively grab hold of a life that is really living!