Generally, we seem pretty confused about what money is good for. We assume that if we just had more of it, we would be happier. This week I was fascinated by a documentary on PBS entitled " Last Train Home" . It chronicles, in an amazingly intimate way, how a Chinese couple leave their 8 month old daughter with her grandmother and migrate to a city to participate in the new economic explosion in that nation. Both husband and wife toil in a clothing factory for long hours, only making an arduous trip back to the farm once a year for the New Year vacation. They are driven by the desire to give their children a better life than they had, and to have a taste of the consumer life. When they visit home, they harangue their daughter, now 13, about studying harder and striving to be at the top of the class. The daughter however, doesn't even know her parents and feels abandoned by them. They have provided her with an education and a cell phone, but no love - no relationship. To their dismay she quits school and takes a factory job. Their confrontations with her end in a fist fight, and she leaves home to work in the city as a barmaid, utterly sad and alone. The parents likewise are miserable and now conflicted about whether they made the right choices.
The documentary, produced by a Chinese filmmaker, is intended to show the underside of that country's economic revolution, but it has a lot to say to our society as well. How many parents are obsessively dedicated to their careers, justifying their absence from home in that they are providing a better life for their children, when in fact they are becoming more and more estranged from them.
In one of Jesus' strangest parables, a dishonest but shrewd manager finds out that is going to be canned. He decides to settle several of his master's loans by giving people great deals, so he would have friends when he was destitute. Jesus makes the point , "The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. And it is true that the citizens of this world are more shrewd than the godly are. I tell you, use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends." In the end, what is money good for? Jesus, while not condoning dishonesty, makes the simple point that money is good for building relationships and benefiting people. When making money becomes an end in itself, and begins robbing us of quality time spent with our families, it becomes a destructive force. Reckless consumerism seems everywhere in the world in our time, but God can help us keep our priorities straight - deep and meaningful relationships come first - money is only good as a means to that end.
