I don't like to dwell on money. To those who have it money is a tool. To those of us who don't have deep pockets money is a necessity. I left the house this morning having placed 9 quarters from the change jar in my pocket so that I could get a Sausage Muffin™ sandwich and a small cup of coffee at McD's. I'm not complaining, but I was paid on Friday, sent $ to my creditors and now I'm scraping for loose change on Monday with 11 days until my next payday.
I minister to a medium sized Church community. A number of the parishioners are elders living in 50-year old mobile homes on rented lots. But a large number of those who worship here have fairly healthy levels of income (I base this only on the observation of the number of foreign luxury cars in the parking lot on Sunday mornings and the large homes I'm occasionally invited to visit - (the clergy is usually treated like the idiot cousin at a family reunion; they are invited out of courtesy and no one speaks to them once they're there)).
Anyway... yesterday one of the deeper-pocketed parishioners and his wife stopped by my office to tell me about their most recent vacation... Tokyo, Beijing, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, Bahrain, Rome, Paris and finally London. Good for them. But here's the kicker... They had the audacity to tell me that I ought to take my wife on an around the world trip. "Oh, she'd love every minute of it."
You know what? They're right. She would. But what do you figure this trip cost them, $100,000? Are they so caught up in their own world they really think their minister could afford such a trip? We'll be lucky this year to be able to go tent camping for a weekend.
More to the point, can you imagine what the community would say if somehow I had saved all my life to take my wife on such a trip. It would be scandal -- they'd demand an audit of the church finances... I'd probably be put out on my ear. I can hear them now: "How dare they take such a vacation when so many in our community can't afford to put food on their table."
Ah, they joys of life in my world.
ACC
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