Chicago Is Expensive, but Money Never Loves You Back
"If we look to our financial prosperity as our main source of safety and confidence in life, then when our wealth is in jeopardy, we will cry out to God for help, but our prayers will be little more than 'worry in God's direction.'"
Chicago is expensive. Have you noticed? From routine rental hikes and relentless property tax increases, to climbing gas and grocery prices, to the always-unwelcome photo-enforced traffic ticket that just shows up in the mailbox, it's hard to keep up. And even when we do keep up, many of us develop a guarded, self-protective relationship with money. After all, you never know when the next hit is coming.
I noticed my own anxiety spike when my daughter started high school this year. It wasn't just that new expenses started popping up. I noticed something darker settling in around money. More fear. More unsettledness. More sorrow. More shame. When those emotions show up, my instinct is to will them away with positivity or just ignore them entirely. But I've been encouraged (by many of you) to stay curious instead.
Our emotions carry important information, if we're willing to listen.
As I paid closer attention, I realized those emotions were affecting the way I prayed. As St. Augustine put it, my prayers had simply become "worry in God's direction." In many ways, that's an incredible gift. What a joy that we have a Father who is willing and longs to hear from us, even in our most persistent anxieties. But I noticed my heart wasn't actually open. I was going to God, but I trusting in money. Prayer had become one of many trees I was shaking, hoping either to break free from worry or to get more of what I thought I needed.
The psalmist says, "If riches increase, set not your heart on them" (Psalm 62:10b). There's something about money, especially in a city like Chicago, that constantly presents itself as a powerful and faithful savior. After all, there are few problems we face that don't seem to be made better with more of it.
But as Paul David Tripp writes in Sex and Money, the problem is that created things we’re prone to trust (like money) have no capacity to satisfy our hearts. After all, we don’t really want money. We want what we think money will give us. We want peace. We want significance. We want control. But money can’t do any of that. Money is a terrible savior. When we trust anything or anyone other than Jesus to be our savior, that thing will end up not being your savior but your master.
Even when money gets us out of a problem, it never loves us. It delivers a short-term buzz, but it cannot quiet our deepest desires. And before long, we've spent too much time, energy, and hope on something that cannot deliver what it promises.
We pray open-heartedly when we are honest about our fears and our needs. Yes, we may have real anxieties. Yes, we may have pressing financial needs. But what we need most is God himself. Peter says it this way, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7). We can be direct with the Lord about our needs and open to his solution.
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Written by Jason C Helveston, Elder for Teaching and Vision
Timothy Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God (New York: Dutton, 2014), 85.
Augustine discusses this dynamic in his essay on prayer; the exact phrasing Keller uses appears on pages 84-85 of Prayer.
Paul David Tripp, Sex and Money: Pleasures That Leave You Empty and Grace That Satisfies (Wheaton: Crossway, 2013).
