Surrounded By Pigs, But Can't Eat Ham

How true are the words of the Apostle Paul in 1Timothy 6:10 that say, "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."

Money is a corrupter. It’s not that the money is evil, but it is the desire for what it can get for you that makes it so bad. I’ve heard it said, and I have proven it time and again for myself to be true, that, “If you want to find out where the source of trouble is in this world, just follow the money trail. Wherever there is a profit to be made, that’s where the source will always be found.”

So in this parable of the Prodigal Son, we seen that the Father is grieved now because his youngest son has now come to him and said, “I want it all and I want it now and if you don’t give it to me, there will be trouble.”

I know that the scripture doesn’t say this but I can read between the lines and sense that the father of this young man wasn’t very happy with what his son had to say. I’m sure that it came to him as a “slap in the face”. His son wasn’t happy just being a son. He wasn’t happy just being a part of the family. The son saw a great big wonderful world out there and decided that he would rather invest his life enjoying what the world had to offer than to stay in the family and invest his life in the very thing that would only make his inheritance better in the end.

Instead of investing for the future, he wanted to spend it all right now! Does that sound like most of the people you know? Do you remember what I have said before: “that people will get what they want right now, at the expense of never having what they want most of all?”

Just to give you an example, most young people today may not even realize it, just as I didn’t at their age, that what they really want most of all is financial independence. That doesn’t always mean being rich. It simply means that you owe no one anything and that you can live within your means and still be happy with what you have.

While I’m thinking about it, let me remind you also of what President Abraham Lincoln once said about being happy. The statement he made goes like this, “I have learned that a man will be about as happy as he makes up his mind to be.”

Getting back to that young couple that are starting out on their journey through life together. What do most of them do as soon as they leave home? They will buy a house, buy a new car, fill it with all the latest gadgets, appliances and new furniture; all because it’s just so easy to get it on credit. That’s the way that most people live, not all, but most. It’s not a question of whether I need it or not, it’s only a question of whether I make enough to pay the monthly note, and sometimes I think that many people don’t even think of the monthly not until 3 months down the road when its two months behind and the creditors are calling constantly.

What they have given up is their financial independence, so that they can have in the beginning, what their parents have had to struggle for a lifetime to have.