What is the relationship of purpose and money? Here’s the crux of many a modern-day challenge of money mastering our lives and dominating our thoughts. Is it practical and affordable to be on-purpose? How do we bridge the gap between what our heart wants and paying our bills? Keep reading!
The text and the video of this On-Purpose Minute provide important insights and strategic direction to create a healthy co-existing relationship with purpose and money.
The Material World of Money
The chorus in Madonna’s 1985 hit single Material Girl is:
Living in a material world
And I am a material girl
You know that we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl
If your worldview is one of a material world, then money is its highest status symbol. Money becomes “what makes the world go around” because it occupies the center of one’s life, attention, and efforts.
Does money define purpose? Purpose is a currency all its own so it doesn’t need money to define it. It would be like thinking that only the rich are on-purpose. Money is a unit of measure, but not a measure of how on-purpose a person is or isn’t.
Purpose lives in your heart; whereas money jealously aspires to rule the house of your heart. Matthew 6:21 says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
We have a choice which to treasure: money or purpose. Even of the best intended of us, far too few have taken a break from the material world and invested our time to discover our purpose in life. Our heart therefore remains relatively empty and undefended from within. We’ve shoved our purpose into a hall closet expecting to pull it out someday when we have more time and money to pay attention to it.
Money, therefore, has an easy job of filling the vacuum of our spirit. Dropping our guard and inviting money to preoccupy our hearts places us at risk of never having the rightful resident abide within us.
Purpose and money are, however, related because if our heart or purpose remains ill-defined, money and purpose are competitors vying for the same space. Purpose politely awaits for our invitation to enter, whereas money will break and enter. Living life divided tears us apart with busyness and distraction as we jump from one pursuit to another in constant, yet ineffective attempts to calm our guilt as we deny and violate our true selves yet again.
Who wins the battle of the material and the spiritual? The answer is simple: the one we most give provision and comfort to within our being. Settling the matter is deciding once and for all which treasure lives in our heart.
I’m, of course, advocating for establishing your purpose as the sole resident of your soul. Money is a harsh and ill-prepared master of the home. It is intended to be a highly obedient servant of the master.
But how does one reclaim one’s heart? Taming money’s lust for control means gaining greater mastery of your life by answering essential questions:
- Do I know what truly matters?
- Do I know my 2-word personal purpose statement?
- Am I willing to do the work to create the life I want?
- Am I prepared to put money in its place?
Here’s a simple and fun exercise. How would you live your life differently if you had unimagined wealth? In this On-Purpose Minute, we’ve explored money’s unhealthy and overly aggressive elbowing of its “claim” on your heart, mind, actions, and decisions. Turn the tables by taking money off the table for a moment and imagining your life lived abundantly.
For what you may not realize is that you’ve already won the lottery! Imagine the price tag Apple would place on selling an iYou! The computing power, the eyesight, the touch pads of your fingertips and body, plus the mobility are priceless. Now add a heart and spirit! $30 million doesn’t come close to estimating your value and worth.
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