Store

So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God. 

 - From Luke 12

We're all rightly concerned about the future of the planet. We see how easily, and quickly, things can go wrong; and how near we are to conditions not unlike the worst in the world. 

One of my favorite teachers, in my life, Dexter Schools Band Director, Martha Scharchburg, told me once: "It only takes one year to turn a great band program into a mediocre one."

The problem, you see, is our tendency toward "What have you done for me lately?" A fifty-year legacy of greatness is good, is very admirable, and draws people to it. But if you have just one down year, it may take a decade to rebuild things. 

Just look at the University of Michigan football program, since about 2005!

Or, think about the topic of Church Growth. I have been involved in several Church Planting, or Church Growth projects, in my life. Many times, we have noted that, if people would just stick around another year, or two, the size of the church will be as big as they always hoped it would become. Each year, there's a wave of people that drop off because it's taking so long. They are replaced by another wave of people that also will get discouraged in one year, and quit. 

My music studio, that I operated between 2017 and 2022 - we always needed 100 active students, and growing, to allow us to continue investing in other programs and paying for admin help. If just 10% of the people that quit, would stay . . . even for just half a year, we would always attain our goal, and the growth of the business would be easy. 

It doesn't take much to make a good thing go wrong. 

In good times, we are advised to save for the bad times. This is excellent advice. It's timeless and wise. But for every one person on the planet that expands their income and assets, there must be a hundred that are barely scraping by. And many of them are in desperate poverty. 

They don't care about your hard work, your wise money management, or your expanding wealth. They will take it from you, without batting an eye. 

While we're going about saving money that we will never use, let us act as though it all may come crashing down tomorrow. Make sure those around you are doing well. Take care of the widows and orphans in your family, your extended family, and neighborhood. 

Take one less vacation, or two. Lose a vacation home. Drive a smaller car. Cut out a wasteful hobby. 

And help someone that will not eat well today, or someone whose heat has been shut off, or whose child is getting bored and bitter because Mom can't afford a nicer home, and piano lessons.