I recently had a conversation with a very dear friend about what could possibly be one of humanity\u2019s most perplexing and misunderstood relationships:\u00a0 our relationship with money.\u00a0 This particular friend of mine was noticing how every time she dreamt up new and exciting ways to draw more money into her life, she found herself experiencing abrupt roadblocks being constructed in the pathway to that effortless flow of financial abundance that she continues to witness others experiencing with seemingly much more ease.<\/p>\n
Confused by more questions in her life than answers, she asked God: \u00a0“What the heck is going on here?”<\/p>\n
She is doing what she loves.\u00a0 She is being who she knows herself to be.\u00a0 She is creative and passionate and has a heart called to serve and help others.\u00a0 She gives of herself openly and lovingly and asks for very little, if anything, in return from anyone.<\/p>\n
So why does the experience of financial prosperity continue to mock someone who is doing all the \u201cright\u201d things in their world?<\/p>\n
Then the answer revealed itself in the very next question from my sweet, wonderful friend:\u00a0 \u201cIs it bad or \u201cwrong\u201d for me to want to make money?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ah, the sponsoring thought. \u00a0The underlying trap.<\/p>\n
Somewhere along the line, money has gotten a really bad rap.\u00a0 We have been taught to desire it and despise it in almost equal measure.\u00a0 Intimate relationships, friendships, and families have been torn apart over money, both in situations of lack and in situations of plenty.\u00a0 Basketball players and movie stars make copious amounts of money.\u00a0 Teachers and social workers barely make enough to pay their basic household bills.\u00a0 And then there are those who have a deep desire to \u201cmake a living\u201d in the spiritual community, those who consider themselves to be key players in the New Spirituality movement, who abruptly discover that they fall into a category for which many believe they simply should not get paid at all<\/i>.<\/p>\n
If we want to take a ride on the \u201cabundance superhighway,\u201d we must change our views about money and refuel ourselves with the energy that flows and radiates deep beneath the obvious paper and coins we hold in our hands or deposit in our bank accounts. \u00a0One of the quickest and surest ways to experience the magnificence of our own abundance is to give to another that which we believe ourselves to be lacking; and in doing so, what we are then allowed to discover about ourselves is that we are already plentiful in what we imagined ourselves to not<\/i> have. \u00a0And not only are we given an opportunity to experience already having it, but we are given the opportunity to experience it to the degree that we actually have enough to give away<\/i>.\u00a0 This is just one of the many extraordinary concepts offered to us from the Conversations with God<\/i> material.<\/i><\/p>\n
If we change our belief<\/i> about money, how might that change our experience<\/i> of money?<\/p>\n
If our experience <\/i>of money is changed, might we be given the opportunity to experience our abundance in a new way, in a way that has nothing to do with money at all<\/i>?<\/p>\n
And if our natural state of abundance has nothing to do with money at all, what does<\/i> it have to do with?<\/p>\n
I love money.<\/p>\n
I love receiving it.\u00a0 I love giving it away.\u00a0 And it has been my personal experience at numerous points in time in my life that I can live quite contently without having much of it at all. I have never been someone who has had what one would call a \u201clot\u201d of money.\u00a0 And I solemnly recognize the disproportionate number of people in the world who are barely getting by in their day-to-day lives with the amount of financial resources they have available to them compared to the tightly guarded segment of our population who holds and controls the vast percentage of our world’s wealth and resources.\u00a0 It is my hope and my vision that one day that model of our world will change.\u00a0 But in order to reach that stage in our evolution, we must reflect upon and restructure some of our most basic and fundamental underlying beliefs not only about money, but about who we are and about why we are even here in the first place.<\/p>\n
Where do we begin? \u00a0What can one person do?<\/p>\n
Perhaps we all can throw an extra dollar or two onto the tip for our next waitress.\u00a0 Maybe we actually do have enough time and money to pull into that youth group\u2019s car wash on the corner.\u00a0 Might we allow ourselves to share 3 or 4 or 5 dollars with the homeless man or woman on the corner without worrying about how they spend it or why they are there to begin with?\u00a0 What would happen if we bought our groceries from the local Mom-and-Pop store in our community, where the prices might be slightly higher, but the service is extraordinary?\u00a0 Would we really miss the extra few dollars and cents in the long run?<\/p>\n
I’m just wondering…<\/p>\n