Enslaved to the Royalty Subscription

 

I read a story the other day, almost definitely AI-generated. It was about a grumpy old man who lived on cans of beans, and his granddaughter, a typical broke homeless Generation Z who moves in with him when she can no longer pay her apartment rent.

Grumpy Grandad blamed his granddaughter's money problems on her $7 lattes and Netflix subscription. She blamed inflation, high interest rates, and a bad job market. Overall, the story was quite cliche, drawing on every stereotype that exists in the great debate of trying to afford housing.

Granddaughter felt that she deserved to treat herself to lattes and Netflix and ordering out, because the economy was bad, life was hard, and she needed a few simple pleasures in life. 

Grandad told her how he worked 14 hour days, living off of a baloney sandwich and a can of beans every single day.

Where you stand in this debate is irrelevant. What is important is one particular line of the story that hit really hard.

The Grandad said, "all these things you're spending money on, $7 lattes, $20 Door-dash, a $1000 cell phone, Netflix, all these other things...you're paying for a subscription to living like royalty."

Bear in mind, I've always considered myself a saver and a frugal spender. I don't buy lattes, don't have Netflix, rarely eat out, and a large portion of my diet is peanut butter and ramen noodles.

Yet this line still stung, because the reality is too real. Throughout my life, I absolutely have nonetheless spent too much money on luxuries I didn't really need, because I "deserved it". I own quite a bit of camping gear. I own firearms. I have a lot of ice cream in the freezer. I have a fairly nice truck.

And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying its bad to have nice things. I'm not saying that if I stop buying ice cream, I'll magically be able to buy a house. The economy still sucks, inflation still runs rampant, there are still other hurdles to overcome.

But what I am saying, is how easy it is for all of us, at all ages, to get caught up in spending above our means for unnecessary pleasures, when we ought to all be living below our means so we can lend a hand to those who have no means at all.

See, when Jesus walked the earth, a rich young nobleman approached him, perhaps some high rank Temple scribe. The man asked Jesus, "how do I get eternal life?" Jesus said, "sell your stuff, give it away, then come and follow me."

Please, do not run out and sell off every single possession you own. I'm not suggesting this is the point. But the rich young ruler was far too attached to his luxurious lifestyle to feed the poor and needy people around him. He was too attached to his lifestyle to join Jesus in his "son of man has no place to lay his head" ministry.

And we don't know what became of him. Did he ever come around? Maybe, maybe not. If he didn't, perhaps his lifestyle had dire consequences after he died.

How dire?

Well, consider the parable of the rich man who gave each of his servants a measure of talents (a talent was a Jewish currency equal to 6000 denarii. A denarii was one day's minimum wage. One talent would be 16 years worth of minimum wage). This rich man left on a long journey. A servant with five talents doubled it and made ten. A servant with two talents doubled it and made four. A servant with one talent hid it, kept it safe, then returned it to his master.

"Here is your one talent, no bigger, no smaller."

 The rich man was furious. He said "at least you could've given the money to the bank so it could have earned interest. At bare minimum. And you didn't even do that, you wicked and lazy sloth?!?"

In the modern world, how are we to read this? Is this a parable where talents represent our skillsets an areas of knowledge? Is it a parable about how we handle our money?

Well, I believe it represents everything.

Every day you have lived, all the money you've ever possessed, all the places you've ever gone, all the experiences you've experienced, all the skills the Lord has granted you, every material possession you've ever owned, every friendship, every relationship, everything.

It is all on loan from our Creator. We are stewards. One day, we will stand before Him and give account of every single thing we have done with our lives and our resources. Total failure has dire consequences.

I don't know about you, but if I died this week, I'd be a very small, very burnt piece of burnt toast. In light of eternal things, over the course of my life, I have not spent my time or money very well at all.

How often do we indulge ourselves in "treats" over being more frugal? How often do we choose happiness and pleasure over feeding the hungry? Over fathering orphans? Over caring for widows? Over visiting the sick?

And once again, I am not saying never spend money on anything nice. I totaled my first truck because I was too cheap to buy new tires. My second truck seized up because I was too cheap to take it to a mechanic. I was not a good steward, these were things I should've spent money on. My current truck, I spend on maintaining well. Lord willing, it will run for the rest of my life.

Skills-wise, I've never been a good talker. Never been a skilled debater. Trying to witness to somebody, I just fumble my words, don't know what to say, and I embarrass myself. I admit I am slightly jealous of those who can just go up to any old random stranger and convince them they need a savior. And maybe someday I'll figure it out, or maybe that's not a skill the Lord chose for me. But a skill He did give me is writing. So when He lays things on my heart, why am I not writing like I'm running out of time?

The Lord gave each of us one life, and only one. We are not here to chase dreams or pursue happiness. We are here to be faithful with everything the Lord has given us, to use it for His kingdom and His greater glory.

Circling back to the story about house buying, for some people, kingdom work might mean never buying a home. It might mean living light and mobile, traveling for the kingdom. For others, it might mean buying a house and having many children. For others, it might mean buying a home and fostering. Some might live alone and build the kingdom in other ways.

But no matter what life may look like, the end of the matter is this: spend like a steward, not like a king. because one day, the king is going to ask for your ledger. And what will it say?

Were we diligent kingdom builders, or were we slaves to the royalty subscription?