One person pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth. – Proverbs 13:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 6, 2013): Proverbs 13

I used to love to read “Mad Magazine.” I loved the satire of the magazine – it was simply something that I could identify with. In one magazine the writers postulated what would happen if prestige was somehow linked with how much you paid in taxes. What if that Sports Car that you dreamt of owning was only available if you were in a certain tax bracket? Now, what if it was illegal to place yourself in a tax bracket that was higher than what the one that your income would have placed you? In the magazine the result was a number of people who paid more taxes than they really owed so that they could gain prestige and the sports car – and were subsequently arrested for their crimes. It postulated a reversal from the way that life really works. Stupid? Of course – after all it was “Mad Magazine.”  

So it is interesting to me when I find a connection between “Mad Magazine” and the book of Proverbs. It is amazing that three millennia before “Mad Magazine” was concerned with people who would pretend to be rich, so was the Biblical Proverbs - even if the reasons for the concern was very different. But the motivation may not be readily apparent, but pretending to be rich – or poor - is a problem. It is disturbing the number of people who walk into my office in need of financial counselling because they have tried to live a life that was economically above what they could really afford. It is the epidemic problem of our culture. But the reverse we do not often see as a problem. In fact, we are more apt to see someone who has great wealth but pretends to be poor as a person who exhibits a special biblical humility – and that has to be a good thing. They are the ones that are willing to go without in order to identify with the poor.

But the problem is that both are pretending to be something that they are not. Those who live beyond their means threaten their own financial future – and the financial future of our society, but on the other the hand the rich who pretend to be poor limit the good that they can do. The unfortunate reality is that the richer people are, the lower the percentage of their income that they are willing to commit to making this world a better place. The idea of the rich philanthropist is actually rarer than we might want to believe.

The biblical idea is that we should be real to ourselves and to others. Not that we should flaunt either our wealth or our poverty, but that we should recognize who it is that we are – and all the good that God has created inside of us that it is possible for us to do. Together we have the ability to make this world a better place – but that possibility starts with our willingness to understand who it is that we really are.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Proverbs 14