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17: When You're Not Making Enough Money · Finding God at Work

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
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This is Finding God at Work.
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Just a reminder that Finding God at Work
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isn't just a podcast, it's also an online
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course.
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Check it out at FindingGodAtWork.org.
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Our current series is Divine Disappointments, Facing Pain
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and Sorrow at Work.
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And today I want to talk about the
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particular pain of just not making enough money.
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I don't know if you've ever been in
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the situation where you've looked at your pay
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stub or your bank account or your credit
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card bill and your stomach just sinks.
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And you feel this anxiety in your body.
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You ask, how are we going to make
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it?
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How are we going to make ends meet?
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If you've never been in that situation, praise
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God.
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But it is not unusual to be in
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that situation.
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If you find yourself there right now, you
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are not alone.
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There are a lot of folks, a lot
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of hardworking people here, even in the United
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States, who, while they're doing their darndest, still
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find that they come up short sometimes.
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This is something that I've actually learned more
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about while I've been working in food banking,
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is the reality of the financial circumstances that
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many people find themselves in.
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An acronym that's kind of become part of
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the parlance in this kind of economic analysis
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is the acronym ALICE, which was new to
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me.
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But ALICE stands for Asset Limited Income Constrained
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Employed.
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So one conversation is around poverty, and often
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the federal poverty level is used to talk
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about people who are in literal poverty.
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But ALICE refers to people who make more
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than the federal poverty level, but still don't
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make enough to meet all their basic needs
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in the area of the country where they
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live.
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So Asset Limited, that means that they don't
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necessarily have a lot of assets or necessarily
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a ton of savings to fall back on
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in the case of emergency.
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Income Constrained, working.
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So they're working, but they don't necessarily have
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a particularly high salary.
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And this phrase, ALICE, or this acronym ALICE,
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was coined by the United Way of Northern
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New Jersey, but now United Way has actually
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done a state-by-state analysis.
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So I looked at the Illinois numbers, and
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according to the federal poverty level, 12%
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of Illinois residents are in literal poverty.
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But then another 25% are in this
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ALICE category, and in numbers by numbers in
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Illinois, for a single adult to meet the
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kind of the survival budget that they've set
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in the research, which would cover things like
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healthcare, rent or housing, transportation, food, technology like
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internet at home, which has become a necessity,
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taxes, childcare if they have kids, plus a
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kind of miscellaneous 10% category.
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To meet that survival budget, for a single
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adult, it's $28,000 a year.
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So that's actually pretty manageable.
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If you go and get a factory job,
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you can probably earn enough money as a
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single adult to meet those expenses.
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But for a family of four, even if
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you take out the childcare piece, right?
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No childcare, two adults, two children, you've somehow
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worked it out, either they're old enough that
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they don't need childcare or you're able to
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arrange things in your family and your household
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to have care for them that doesn't have
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a financial cost.
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It's about $60,000 a year.
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So to provide for just two kids and
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two adults, $60,000 a year.
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Now let's think about the factory job example.
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The higher end of a kind of entry
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-level factory job would be $20 an hour.
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That comes out to just shy of $42
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,000 a year, maybe more with overtime.
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But still, there's going to be a significant
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gap there.
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So if we're imagining, okay, a young family,
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maybe they want one person to be the
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breadwinner, the other to stay home with the
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kids.
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That person goes out and is trying to
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get a factory job because they don't necessarily
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have an advanced education.
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They might be able to make $42,000,
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$45,000 a year, but they're still going
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to have a big gap in terms of
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being able to meet their kids and their
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cost of living in many places in the
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United States today.
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So if you find yourself in that situation,
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or even if you don't fit the technical
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category of asset limited, income constrained, employed, but
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you're feeling that stress of trying to meet
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certain goals and coming up short, I just
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want to assure you that you're not alone
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and that many people are in that situation
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with you and that there is a way
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forward in the middle of that situation.
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Now, when I'm wearing my food banker hat,
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I might talk about a way forward in
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terms of how to get the resources that
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your family needs.
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And that's really important.
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But while I'm wearing my podcaster hat, and
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it was recently sent my pastor hat, I
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want to talk about the spiritual danger and
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the spiritual opportunity that comes from the stress
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of just not making enough money in your
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current job.
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And there's lots of different kind of angles
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we could take on this.
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We could talk about anxiety and trusting that
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God will provide.
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That's really important.
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But what I want to talk about is
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the spiritual danger of resentment.
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Resentment.
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Now resentment can surface when we're disappointed about
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something, but it can also surface when we
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just feel like there are unreasonable obligations put
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upon us.
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So I would define resentment like this.
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Resentment is the emotional and spiritual response when
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our sacrifices are constrained rather than freely given.
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Resentment is our emotional and spiritual response when
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our sacrifices are constrained rather than freely given.
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And this doesn't have to be in a
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financial context.
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Like I remember when I was in college,
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I felt a lot of pressure that I
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put on myself to get as close to
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a 4.0 as I could.
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I wanted to be a straight A student.
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And then if I had a professor that
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assigned what I considered a lot of homework,
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an unreasonable amount of homework, I would feel
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resentful towards that professor.
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Now what's that about?
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It's because I felt this sense of obligation
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to try and make really high grades.
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And then I felt like I was constrained
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by this professor's expectations in terms of homework
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to make sacrifices that I didn't want to
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make.
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It felt really hard to make it that
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4.0 and still be a healthy human
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being.
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He ate and slept and saw his girlfriend
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or fiance or wife sometimes.
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Because by the time I graduated, we were
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married.
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So now the reality is I was failing
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to take ownership for my own experience.
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I was failing to see it's my own
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pressure that I'm putting on myself to make
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these grades that's creating that feeling of resentment.
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That feeling of constraint in some ways resulted
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from refusing to take responsibility for my own
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emotions and my own emotional experience.
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So that's kind of our first clue to
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what's the alternative to resentment.
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We'll come back to that.
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But I want to talk about resentment in
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the financial perspective.
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If you're the breadwinner in your family, if
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you're earning as a single adult for yourself
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or if you're providing for your family, perhaps
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the primary person financially providing for your family,
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it's really easy to fall into this place
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of resentment.
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If you're doing everything you know how to
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do, you're working as hard as you can
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and you look at the money and it
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just doesn't add up.
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And maybe your spouse is disappointed with you
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or angry at you.
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Maybe your kids are complaining about something.
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It can really feel awful.
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It can feel like there is no way
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for me to measure up to these expectations.
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There is no way to navigate everything that
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I'm responsible for.
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It can feel like the sacrifices placed on
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you are unreasonable.
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They're constrained.
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Your sacrifices are constrained rather than freely given.
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Okay.
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But there is a way out.
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There's a way out from resentment even while
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you're still in the financial difficulty.
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And I want to look at three themes
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that scripture weaves together.
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And they aren't always woven together in our
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cultural dialogue, but they are woven together in
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scripture.
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And those are the themes of personal agency,
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faith, and generosity.
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Personal agency, faith, and generosity.
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Okay.
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So personal agency.
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I'm going to go to the book of
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Proverbs.
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In many ways, Proverbs is like a personal
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agency book.
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It's about, hey, what you do with the
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deck of cards that you're dealt makes a
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big, big difference.
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So let me just read a few verses
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that we could cite.
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Many other verses that are very similar to
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these about the importance of personal responsibility and
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hard work.
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So this is Proverbs chapter 12, verse 14.
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From the fruit of his mouth, a man
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is satisfied with good.
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And the work of a man's hands comes
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back to him.
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Also verse 27.
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Whoever is slothful will not roast his game,
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but the diligent man will get precious wealth.
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Then just one chapter later in 13 verse
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22.
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A good man leaves an inheritance to his
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children's children, but the sinner's wealth is laid
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up for the righteous.
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Okay.
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So what are these verses saying?
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These verses are saying that there is a
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positive relationship between responsible effort and economic outcomes.
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Responsible effort and economic outcomes.
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The work of a man's hand returns to
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him.
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Whoever is slothful will not roast his game,
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right?
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Like there's this you eat what you kill
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kind of mentality that's there, even in the
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inspired word of God.
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If you want to eat, you got to
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get out there and get some food.
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You got to work for it.
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You got to put your hand to the
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plow and put your back into it and
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see what happens when you take responsibility.
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And the family model for this is that
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that doesn't just provide for you.
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It provides for other people as well.
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A good man leaves an inheritance to his
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children's children, but the sinner's wealth is laid
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up for the righteous.
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So there's this sense that there can be
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a moral accountability, right?
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Like if you, uh, if you end up
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leading a life of deceit and of oppressing
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others, uh, God may turn the tables on
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you and your wealth will go to somebody
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else who deserves it more.
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Okay.
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So that's one theme that's here in the
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scriptures, but there's also a counterpoint to this
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theme and it's right there in the, in
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the same chapter.
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So literally the very next verse in chapter
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13 is the fallow ground of the poor
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would yield much food, but it is swept
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away through injustice.
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And so there's this acknowledgement that while there
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often is a positive correlation between responsible effort
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and economic outcomes, there are also injustices which
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can take away the fruit of labor that
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people should have, right?
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The fallow ground of the poor would yield
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much food, but it is swept away through
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injustice.
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So sometimes you don't get the economic results
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that you should through no fault of your
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own, not because of your personal character feelings
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or anything like that, but because of the
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injustices that are present there in your society.
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So both of these themes are there in
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the scriptures.
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And again, the scripture pushes back against a
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simplistic kind of right leaning view, uh, politically
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and economically speaking and a simplistic left leaning
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view, uh, politically and economically speaking.
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There's an emphasis on personal responsibility and a
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connection between working hard and getting money, but
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there's also the acknowledgement that there are cultural
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injustices that can prevent people from realizing those
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opportunities.
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Both of those are right there in the
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word of God for us.
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Okay.
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So I want to talk about personal agency.
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What you do with your situation matters.
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You will never move forward in a situation
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where you say, Oh, woe is me.
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There's nothing I can do.
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Personal agency really matters.
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Acknowledging that injustices exist is really important, but
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an injustice does not take away your capacity
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to respond as best as you can, even
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in the midst of that injustice.
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So maybe you didn't get a fair shake.
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Maybe you got the raw end of a
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deal.
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That's true.
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That's important to acknowledge, not to blame yourself
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for things that aren't your fault, but then
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to say, okay, given that this is the
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situation, what can I do?
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How can I take responsibility to pursue whatever
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opportunities are there for me and for my
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family?
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So personal agency.
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Okay.
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Now that's present, I would say, in our
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cultural narrative.
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And in some ways, I think it's there
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in our cultural narratives because of the Judeo
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-Christian, uh, kind of influence on our culture
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from centuries in the past, uh, this sense
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that what you do matters and it can
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make a difference for yourself and for your
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family.
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That's a good thing.
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That's a good message that's in our culture.
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Um, I think it's important that we name
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that.
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Sometimes people get a little bit too down
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on the idea of personal responsibility.
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Okay.
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That being said, often it's disconnected from these
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other themes that are woven together with it
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in scripture.
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And those are those themes of faith and
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generosity.
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Uh, so right here in the same text
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of Proverbs, uh, you notice that, that kind
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of implication about the action of God.
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A good man leaves an inheritance to his
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children's children, but the sinner's wealth is laid
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up for the righteous.
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There's this suggestion here that God is the
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one who's ultimately going to bring about justice,
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right?
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God is the one who acts to make
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good on good efforts and to, to frustrate
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evil efforts.
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Some of that may not be realized until
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kingdom come when, when Jesus returns.
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Um, but it's ultimately God who acts to
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realize goodness.
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And so that means that we can place
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our faith in God to act in our
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best interest, even when we're in a really
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difficult financial situation.
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Here, I want to move to the New
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Testament.
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Jesus is brilliant teaching in the Sermon on
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the Mount.
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Uh, just a couple of selections, um, from
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chapter five, uh, and chapter six as well.
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Jesus talks about, uh, not being anxious about
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your possessions.
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He says, therefore I tell you, do not
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be anxious about your life, what you will
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eat or what you will drink, nor about
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your body, what you will put on.
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Is not life more than food and the
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body more than clothing?
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Look at the birds of the air.
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They neither sown or reap nor gather into
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barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them.
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Are you not of more value than they?
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Again, Jesus's emphasis is on the character of
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God.
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How do the birds eat?
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Because the heavenly father feeds them.
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What will ultimately determine your wellbeing, God's love
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for you.
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And so it's strange to put it this
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way, but there is a spiritual opportunity for
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experiencing God's love when you're in a financially
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difficult situation.
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There's a question of where are you looking,
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right?
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Do you just look at the situation?
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You just look at what am I going
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to eat?
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What am I going to drink?
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What am I going to wear?
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Or are you looking at the loving character
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of your father and saying, God, I'm doing
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my darnedest.
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I don't know what else to do.
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I need to depend on you.
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Please provide for us.
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When you come to God with that faith,
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trusting in his character, you'll see how he
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provides for you.
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And again, that's kind of the mirror image
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of personal agency in scripture.
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It's not that we sit around doing nothing,
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waiting for God to provide, so to speak.
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We take action.
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We take advantage of the opportunities that God
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gives us and we trust that God is
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the one who's acting in the midst of
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our activity to provide for us.
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There may be situations where we're unable to
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work and God will still provide for us
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then, but the norm is that God provides
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for us by engaging us in the process.
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Okay, so that's faith, personal agency and faith,
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but then also generosity.
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And here, I think, is the real answer
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to the problem of resentment.
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And we get at this in Jesus' teaching
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in chapter 5 of Matthew, where he talks
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about obligations that are imposed on people.
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He says, and if anyone would sue you
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and take your tunic, let him have your
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cloak as well.
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And if anyone forces you to go one
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mile, go with him two miles.
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Give to the one who begs from you
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and do not refuse the one who would
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borrow from you.
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Jesus is talking about these kind of constraints
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that happen in human relationships, right?
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Somebody wants to sue you.
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They want to constrain you with the power
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of the law just to get your stuff,
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to take your tunic.
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Interesting lawsuit, probably small claims court, right?
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Or somebody forces you to go one mile.
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This was something that the Roman authorities could
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actually force Jews to do in Jesus' time.
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Say, hey, you're going to help me carry
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this load for a mile, interrupt their day,
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take their time, take their effort for the
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empire's cause.
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Somebody who begs from you is kind of
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imposing on you with their human need and
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saying, give to me.
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And Jesus says, in all of these situations,
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what can you do?
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What can you do?
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You can exercise generosity.
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You can choose to not just give the
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tunic that he was going to sue you
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for in small claims court, but give him
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your cloak as well.
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You can choose not just to go the
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one mile that was required of you, but
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to go the second mile.
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You can choose to give to the one
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who begs of you rather than just turning
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away from them.
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Generosity is how we find our way into
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freedom when we feel constrained.
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It's to choose what we didn't choose.
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The Roman soldier imposes something on us and
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we choose it, even though it wasn't our
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first preference.
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We take it up and we give it
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to the Roman soldier.
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We give an extra mile.
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We say, here, take this too.
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You see how this leads us into a
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place of interior freedom, where instead of stewing
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in resentment because of other people's expectations on
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us, we have a freedom to give to
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them out of the abundance of what God
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has given us.
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And so that's how faith informs generosity, right?
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Unless we have this vision that God is
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going to provide for us, we're never going
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to find the freedom to give that extra
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mile to give to the one who's begging
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from us, to give the cloak as well
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as the tunic.
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But if we have that experience of God's
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love for us, even in the midst of
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difficulty, even in the midst of that temptation
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towards resentment, you can say, no, I'm going
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to choose this.
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I'm going to choose to give even more
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than what's asked of me.
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That's the way out from resentment.
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And so when you're in a job and
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it's hard to make ends meet, what does
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that mean?
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Okay.
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First thing, personal agency.
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Maybe you need to find a new job.
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Maybe you need to take responsibility for figuring
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that out.
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Faith, ask God to provide for you and
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your family.
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Ask God to provide that new job or
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that raise or that change of circumstance that
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will make it possible for you to get
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to a better situation.
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But then three, generosity.
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In the meantime, while it's still difficult, while
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it's difficult to make ends meet, ask God
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to show you how to be generous.
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Ask God what that second mile is that
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you can walk even right now, because that
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flips the script.
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That changes your heart from feeling like you're
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weighed down and oppressed and constrained to creatively
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taking initiative to love the people around you.
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And there's great freedom in that regardless of
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how much money makes it home to the
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bank each week.
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Lord Jesus, thank you that you are good,
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that we can put our faith in you.
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We ask that you would dignify our sense
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of personal agency, that you would increase our
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faith in you and our experience of your
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father's love.
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And he would show us how to be
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generous like you call us to be.
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Provide for us and do your work in
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us as we do our work with you.
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Amen.
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Thanks for listening.
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Finding God at Work is a production of
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Mission Central, a ministry based in Aurora, Illinois,
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dedicated to forming Christians for mission in everyday
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life.
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You can subscribe to the podcast wherever you
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listen to this episode to get 10 minutes
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of teaching on faith and work every Tuesday
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and Thursday.
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To get resources to go deeper with each
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podcast series, read our blog, and get info
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about upcoming courses on faith in the workplace,
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go to our website, missioncentral.church.