12/08/2026
I recently heard a testimony about a woman who couldn’t save her mother because they didn’t have the money.
Her mother had a disease. There was an operation that could have helped.
They couldn’t afford it.
Her mother died.
For years, I’ve said, “Money isn’t the most important thing.”
I said it easily because it sounded humble. It sounded right.
I don’t say it the same way anymore.
I’ve started to understand that something doesn’t have to be the most important thing to be very important.
And money can be very important.
It can pay for the operation.
It can keep a family afloat when someone loses a job.
It can give you the freedom to say yes when someone needs help.
It can create options when life suddenly takes an unexpected turn.
That doesn’t make money the point.
It makes money a tool.
Maybe that’s where I’ve been too casual.
Financial unpreparedness rarely comes from one dramatic decision.
It’s usually a hundred quiet ones.
The savings you kept postponing.
The investment you never learned to understand.
The financial conversation you avoided.
Each one feels insignificant.
Until the day someone you love needs something and you realize good intentions don’t pay the bill.
That’s why I think we’re asking the wrong question when we ask, “How important is money?”
We treat it as though it has to compete with family, faith, health, and purpose.
It doesn’t. Money isn’t the destination.
It’s an instrument.
Asking whether money is more important than your family is like asking whether the roof are more important than the house.
The roof aren’t the purpose of the house.
But without them, the house can’t shelter the people inside it.
The same is true of money.
It isn’t what life is about.
But it can help protect, provide, serve, and create opportunities.
That family didn’t lose a ranking argument.
They faced a moment when the instrument wasn’t there.
I’m not saying money would have saved her. Sometimes it doesn’t.
And I’m not saying poverty is a character flaw. It isn’t.
I’m saying we should be careful when “money isn’t the most important thing” becomes an excuse for never learning how to steward it well.
That’s also what makes the parable of the talents uncomfortable for me.
The servant who was rebuked wasn’t the one who lost everything through greed.
He buried what he had been given.
He was afraid.
He returned it untouched.
Maybe stewardship isn’t simply about having more.
Maybe it’s about refusing to bury what God has entrusted to us.
So I’m asking a different question now.
Not “How important is money?”
But:
“What is it for?”
If it’s for your family, steward it well.
If it’s for generosity, build the capacity to give.
If it’s for freedom, create margin.
If it’s for serving others, develop the ability to serve at a greater scale.
Money is not the most important thing, but it is not something we should bury.
