What Did You Expect?

(Pro 12:9 KJV)  He that is despised, and hath a servant, is better than he that honoureth himself, and lacketh bread.

As I read this verse this morning, my mind went several directions.  One went back to a book I read years ago, called The Millionaire Mind.  It was either that one or the other that went along with it called The Millionaire Next Door.  One of the points he made in those books was that there are more teachers who become millionaires then there are doctors.  The reason was that all those doctors made more money but needed to look more affluent.  They had to spend that money keeping up the image of being well-off.  Teachers on the other hand are expected to be poor and so they didn’t necessarily need to buy the flashy cars or the designer clothes.

Another rabbit trail was a memory of a fund raiser in the church I was attending years ago.  My wife and I were not invited to the fund raiser.  Our friends were.  Since I didn’t really want to go to a fund raiser that in itself didn’t bother me.  What bothered me was the way in which the church was kissing up to people they thought had money.  My friend tended to exude opulence.  I drove an old car and dressed in clothes that weren’t exactly cutting edge.  The irony of the situation is that we probably could have contributed more than they could but we were not invited to the steak dinner on China and white table cloths.

A third tangent had to do with a discussion in which people talked about how the elderly poor are having a hard time paying their bills and even putting food on the table.  The same time I’m aware that most of the equity in the country is in the hands of the elderly because they learned to be thrifty.  How that will work out I don’t know.

So?  What kind of a steward are you?  God has given you certain resources.  I believe that the providence of God will provide for His people.  I often wonder if a lack of resources is not the result of lack of discipline rather than oppression.  I have to be careful not to be judgmental here, but it is an observation based on this verse.