You Cannot Serve Two Masters When It Comes To Wealth

Having a great paying job is what we all strive for when we become adults. Our society tells us the more money we make, the happier we will be. However, as so many have discovered, there is futility in this notion. Having more money can only dull the ache and desire for something bigger. Some may even argue it can buy things to make you happy, but can it really?

Serving Too Many Masters

There is a Bible verse which states that man cannot serve two masters. If they try, they will be devoted and love one and despise and hate the other (Matthew 6:24). This is a direct correlation to following God and trying to follow the path of having wealth. Now, I understand many of you may not have the same faith as we do, but the comparison is still there for most things in our life. If you do follow a Christian faith or something similar, this holds true with your walk with your God. If you are just relating this to a non-faith follower, it is true with life. You cannot be so devoted to having money and wealth that you lose sight of the life you are trying to buyback.

Just Imagine

Imagine you start working when you are the young age of 16. Yay, you have a job and you are making some money. Now, from the day you start supporting yourself fully, you are trading your time for money. I am talking about the average person with an income in a range from $12,000-$200,000 a year. You are making a set dollar amount per hour (even if you are salary) for your time spent at a certain location to perform a certain skill. Depending on how old you are when you are reading this, imagine all of the time you have spent on your job(s). What could you have been doing with your time had you not been at work? What would you have wanted to do? You could have done hobbies, traveled, volunteered, or spent time with family/friends. However, you were using your time to work and make money to live off of just to go back to work again the next day.

The Trap You Never See Coming

There is nothing wrong with working to have a life. However, if you are working so much or devoted to a career so much that you forget to live a life, that is where I believe there is an issue. We think that we need more and more money for things in this life or to prove we are wealthy. The trap follows when we reach the end of our working career. We hit retirement age and realize we have wasted so much of our lives for money, that we forgot to live it. This compounded with the inevitable fact that our bodies age, can be tough to handle. Our minds may still think like a 30-year-old, but our bodies are definitely not acting like it.

Something To Think About

Now, I am not trying to tell you how to live your life. You have to make the choices which govern your outcome, and I will make mine. I simply want to ensure you think about more than just making money. There is always going to be one more thing to buy or one more thing you want. We make wishlists all of the time. These lists never stop growing though. There is never going to be enough money to satiate the growing appetite for things we all have. I personally would hate to have thought I loved working for a luxurious life for so long, just to later despise it because I wasted so much time. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot work your life away when it’s not needed and also try to live an epic life. Many try to have it all, but ultimately they all end up at a breaking point.

Take a step back and really evaluate what it is you are wanting in life. Avoid material things for now in your thoughts at first. Those will come and go. What is it that only time can give you?