In 2013, a seventeen-year-old British woman, Jane Park, won one million British pounds playing the Euromillions lottery. She went on a buying spree and discovered something surprising. A reporter wrote the following regarding Park’s experience:
Buying things for the sake of buying things got old. Instead of finding happiness via conspicuous consumption, Park uncovered an age-old maxim preached by holy men for thousands of years and ignored by enthusiastic lottery winners for almost as long: Money can't buy happiness, and large amounts of it have a way of, well, complicating things.1
This is hardly new revelation, but Park’s response was novel. She blamed the lottery for ruining her life. Her claim was that she should have been banned from winning the lottery at age seventeen. After all, she was the youngest winner in the Euromillions lottery history.
Arguably, there is some truth to her claim. Park demonstrated a lack of stewardship skills, which for a seventeen-year-old was not surprising. If the lottery management suspected that Park might be unwise with her financial windfall, it appears they were silent.
King Solomon, however, was not silent regarding such a situation. He warned about what would happen when people receive a financial windfall but lacked the stewardship skills to properly manage it. He said:
An inheritance gained hastily at the beginning will not be blessed at the end.2
To manage resources of any type—time, talent, and treasure (T3)—requires stewardship skills based on a biblical worldview.3 A biblical worldview informs us that all assets belong to God; we are, therefore, simply stewards. This means that all treasure, including money, belongs to God. The proper attitude toward money is to recognize God’s ownership and therefore our role to serve him with the money he entrusts to us. Consequently, anyone receiving a large sum of money should immediately seek the Lord to discern his purpose for the resources. The proper response of a steward to financial wealth should be prayer for wisdom. In addition, one should study the Word of God to learn his ways and seek wise counsel for direction.
Apparently, Park did not understand how to respond to her financial windfall and, just as King Solomon predicted, she squandered the money because she lacked stewardship skills to properly manage the resources.
Park's worldview included an erroneous assumption that conspicuous consumption would bring happiness and presumably a successful life. If she had been biblically trained, she would have known that money is not the predicate for either happiness or success. Rather, happiness and success in life are tantamount to contentment, which is the fruit of a godly life. A godly life is a lifestyle aligned with the will and ways of God.4
Notwithstanding Park's wrong definitions about life, the Lord used her situation as an opportunity to challenge her. Biblically, the reason for her dissatisfaction is clear. God did not create human beings to waste their time on earth focused on conspicuous consumption; rather, mankind was created to represent God by ruling creation according to his will and ways.5 Park’s proper response to her lack of happiness should have been conviction and repentance for her sin instead of blaming the lottery officials for allowing her to foolishly squander her winnings.
But foolishness in stewarding money is not the sole purview of young people; people of all ages demonstrate a lack of wisdom in financial matters. Even financial pundits can reflect nonbiblical thinking. I recently received a communication that offered tips for older people considering retirement and estate planning. The first tip was as follows:
It’s time to use the money you saved up. Use it and enjoy it. Don’t just keep it for those who may have no notion of the sacrifices you made to get it. Remember there is nothing more dangerous than a son- or daughter-in-law with big ideas for your hard-earned capital. Warning: This is also a bad time for investments, even if it seems wonderful or fool-proof. They only bring problems and worries. This is a time for you to enjoy some peace and quiet.6
When I read this, I was struck with the narcissism and lack of understanding of the multi-generational metanarrative. The Lord does not give us financial resources to fund our will; rather, he expects us to use our resources, such as T3, to support his will. His will is expressed in the metanarrative—the overarching story of history focused on Christ. Our connection with the metanarrative includes playing our God-ordained roles and helping to prepare our heirs—both natural and spiritual—to play their roles in the metanarrative. This means we should utilize resources to discern and support God’s will for ourselves and our heirs. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus makes this very point:
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”7
Our T3, including money, is temporal, that is, it does not transcend this existence. Our priority in life should be wealth that transcends this existence.8 Therefore, we should use T3 to trade up to true wealth—wealth that God values. Some examples of true wealth are wisdom, reputation, righteousness, respect, revelation, godliness with contentment, and true faith.9
To use T3 to acquire true wealth is very challenging. It requires a biblical view of wealth, including the stewardship skills to live accordingly. To gain a biblical worldview requires training. By nature, however, human beings are fallen and therefore don’t naturally gravitate toward a biblical worldview. Because of the noetic effects of sin, we neither naturally know a biblical worldview nor are we inclined to learn it.10 To gain a biblical worldview requires first and foremost the power of the Spirit of God at work in us to transform us.11 At the same time, we must respond to the Holy Spirit obediently and submit to the process of transformation by means of the renewing of our minds—noetic renewal.12
The above examples illustrate that foolish financial thinking inherent in mankind that can be displayed by anyone at any age—even pundits. Foolish financial thinking will be evidenced by poor stewardship skills rooted in nonbiblical thinking.
Any resource given to us, including financial resources, is always a test to see if we are transformed enough to properly steward the resources according to the will and ways of God. Without biblical stewardship skills, human beings will, by default, squander resources. With biblical stewardship skills, human being will seek to utilize resources in alignment with the will and ways of God.
Wise stewards recognize God’s plan and purpose expressed in the multi-generational metanarrative and eagerly support his purpose with their T3. May we all have grace and favor to steward our T3 according to the will and ways of God. If we do this well, we will trade our T3 for true wealth. The receipt or validation of such a trade is godliness with contentment. And godliness with contentment is a far better measure of happiness and success in life than any momentary pleasure that one might experience via conspicuous consumption.
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1. http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/analysis-she-won-the-lottery-at-17-now-she-blames-euromillions-officials-for-‘ruining-her-life’/ar-AAmXzts.
2.
Proverbs 20:21 (NKJV).
3.
1 Corinthians 4:1–7.
4.
Psalm 1.
5.
Genesis 1:26–28.
6.
Private communication; source unknown.
7.
Matthew 6:19–21 (ESV).
8.
1 Timothy 6:7.
9.
Gleanings, http://strategieswork.net/publications/gleanings/2016/2016-09.htm.
10.
Romans 3:23.
11.
Philippians 1:6.
12.
Romans 12:1–2. 
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