Put Your Money Where Your Faith Is

In Luke chapter 6, Jesus outlines the characteristics of a generous heart:
30 Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. 31 And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.   36 Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. 37 "Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you."

I think this entire passage speaks to using the tools that God has given to us in a strategic manner, to do His work.   We recognize the stewardship that is involved in our call as believers - God has entrusted to us a host of resources; some tangible, like money, and some intangible, like time or spiritual giftedness.   As stewards, I believe that He wants us to have a strategy in how He wants us to use what He has given to us.   That takes prayer, which can lead to a plan.   So, we exercise stewardship, in a strategic way, and with a sacrificial heart, humbling ourselves before God so He can use us to bring glory to His name.

In 2nd Corinthians 9, we recognize that God desires to be involved in how we use the resources that He has given; indeed, what He owns anyway:
10 Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, 11 while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. 12 For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God


Recently, the Wall Street Journal published a story on a relatively unknown couple from the Houston area - John and Laura Arnold.   John had accumulated a fortune estimated at $4 billion in the past decade—very few made more during that time - and the Arnolds have decided to give almost all of it away.  In October 2012, he closed his hedge fund, Centaurus Energy, and retired.   In U.S. history, there may have never been a self-made individual with so much money who devoted himself to philanthropy at such a young age. 


Arnold and his wife, Laura, have a somewhat unique approach to giving. Most billionaires tend to write checks to good causes they're part of, hospitals where they were treated or universities they attended. These are the so-called "grateful-recipient" donors. Or there are donors who make sizable gifts to meet an obvious need in a community, such as hunger or education. But at a time when charitable giving in the U.S. is still down from its peak in 2007, the Arnolds want to try something new and somewhat grander. John says the goal is to make "transformational" changes to society - they want to see if they can use their money to solve some of the country's biggest problems through data analysis and science, with a focus on results and an aversion to feel-good projects—the success of which can't be quantified.

Apparently, no topic is too ambitious: the Arnolds plan to dig into criminal justice and pension reform, obesity, and others. Anne Milgram, the former New Jersey attorney general hired to tackle the criminal-justice issue, has a name for all this: She calls it the "Moneyball" approach to giving, a reference to the book and movie about how the Oakland A's used smart statistical analysis to upend some of baseball's conventional wisdom. And the Arnolds are in no hurry for answers. Indeed, they believe patience is a key resource behind their giving.

And, in an interview with the website, GiveSmart.org, picked up by The Christian Post, Laura Arnold said they have decided that they don't want to use their vast wealth to create an entitlement mentality for their children: 

"We don't believe that our children should inherit vast amounts of money.  We think that many people have been quite successful at creating dynasties that have been effective and where people are productive and terrific members of society but we just don't want to run that risk. We want to give our children the opportunity and the ambition to create wealth themselves," she said.

"We don't want them to feel entitled. We don't want them to feel life has been solved for them. We always talk amongst ourselves that wealth should allow the kids to be able to do anything they want but not to do nothing and it was very hard as a parent to figure out how to do this," she highlighted.

Yesterday, I talked about the NBA's Kevin Durant donating $1 million to tornado relief in Oklahoma City, where he plays basketball.   I remarked that he put his money where his faith is.  I don't know what the Arnolds' motivation is, but they demonstrate some great principles for believers - our money is a tool.   A tool not only for buying and selling, for commerce, for providing for our families and creating future security, but also for investing - for making the lives of others better.   When we give to the Lord, recognizing that it all belongs to Him and we have been placed as stewards over it, we are demonstrating our love for Him and our desire to be used of Him to bring His light to others.

And, as the Arnolds demonstrate, it's important that we have a strategy for the use of our dollars.  If we don't intentionally have a spending plan, and purpose to not spend more than we make, then it becomes less difficult to exercise the necessary restraint.  And, the starting point for that strategy is to give our firstfruits to God - writing that tithe check first.   Then, if we are prudent and budget carefully, even setting aside some dollars for saving and investing, our goal can be to not only meet our expenses, but to have an overflow, which we can invest in Kingdom work - work that can be "transformational" in people's lives and in our communities.