Slay the monster

I’ve been a pastor for thirty-plus years, and I’ve heard the confession of just about every kind of sin you can imagine, except one. In all my years of pastoring, I’ve never heard anyone confess to the sin of greed. Not one single time! Yet, in every listing of the seven deadly sins, greed is present, and the evidence of greed in our everyday lives is very real. What most people don’t understand is this: you can be a greedy rich person, or you can be a greedy person who is poor. And greed is a monster that saps your strength, your energy and your emotions. Left unchecked, it will dominate your life.

A Gallup survey done in the late 1970’s revealed that 50 percent of college freshmen were just as interested in having a meaningful life as they were in achieving financial security. In a similar survey conducted in 1987, 81 percent of college freshmen were more interested in financial security than they were in building a meaningful life! So the sin of greed has made inroads through the years. But for a culture that is bent on getting, and choked with greed, there is a way out. It’s called giving. Greed is killed by giving. Do you own something that you cannot give away? Then you do not own it...it owns you. Are you satisfied with what you have, or are you driven by the desire to have “just a little bit more?” If it’s more you’re after, slay the monster of greed by the virtue of giving. Give until it hurts...then keep giving until it begins to feel better. You’ll be surprised at the freedom giving brings.