Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

Most of us who have spent a significant amount of time in church have heard the parable of the rich fool before. For those who haven’t heard it so often I’ll try to keep it brief. In this parable found in Luke 12 Jesus teaches us about a man who had a surplus of crop that he didn’t know what to do with. He thought about it, and decided this in verses 18-19:

“I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”

This is called the parable of the rich fool because God wasn’t a fan of that idea. Verses 20-21 show us why:

“But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

Good parable. Easy to understand. Easy to agree with. Easy to call this man a fool. Not easy, however, to admit that what He did is exactly what most of us do, and are taught to do our entire lives. Culture teaches us our wealth should be used to buy the latest Apple product, or to get that car that parallel parks itself. It teaches us that we need that stuff to be a more complete person. Our storehouses are our bank accounts, our homes, our game systems, our smart phones, and our computers. It’s foolish to pour our wealth into such things.

Don’t be selfish. Don’t be stupid enough to think that God gave you riches so you could sit on your butt, and keep it all to yourself. God was good to you so you could be good to others. Any of us who were lucky enough to be born in America are able to do so much because of the great ways we’ve been blessed. Despite this many of us act like this rich fool, and only consider ourselves.

How many of us say we want to tithe, but don’t because we just need a little more money to do so? How many of us make a ton of money, and use it to buy ourselves a better car, bigger house, or to invest so we can make even more? Using our money to eat, drink, and be merry is the American way. We cannot criticize this rich fool, for we act just like him. We keep our riches to ourselves, and keep them from the Lord. This can and should change.

If you have excuses to keep from tithing stop fooling yourself. If you get over one excuse Satan can always provide you with a thousand more excuses. Don’t think that it is somehow right to pad your bank account while some people in different corners of the world don’t even have clean water to drink. Much has been given to us, and we can do immeasurably more with our wealth than we could ever ask or imagine if we trust it to God. If we would stop being selfish, and stop using our wealth for what we think we need to make ourselves happy we will find there is more joy to be had in being rich toward the Lord. We can stop being rich fools, and start being good stewards.