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| Francis Ssennyonjo |
1. In 1 Timothy 6:10, the Bible refers
to the love of money as the “root of all kinds of evil”. Why do you think the
Bible uses such a strong analogy?
My understanding of the
word root is that it goes deep into being the foundation of a plant. The root
is therefore the foundation for anything to stand or be seen. Loving money
means selling out your love to something that the world system uses to control
people.
The meaning of the love of money is well
represented in the verse Luke 16:13: “No servant
can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or
he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and
money.”
In 1 John 5:19, the Bible says that
“this world is under the sway of the evil one”. The essence of the sway rotates
about things like money. Money is a “controller” in this world. So the moment
your love, your heart, your being is rooted in the love of money, then trust me
you are rooted in evil itself. And the concept of money is only found on this
earth. It was created by man and we use it to represent material wellbeing or
welfare.
2. Has there ever been a point in your
life when you felt like money was or wanted to be in the driver’s seat of your
life?
Yes. Sometime in 1987, I was
at that time employed by Compassion International as chief finance officer. I
was involved in a lot of procurement. This particular time I was required to
buy some furniture. I went and bought some good furniture but also did some
bargaining on the cost of the furniture. I saved almost 25% of the estimated
total cost of the furniture. As I was taking back this furniture a thought came
into my mind that I should pocket this 25%.
I did pocket the money but was
never at peace within me. I knew deep within me that this was wrong; I had
fallen for the temptation of taking off this money and rationalized it in me by
saying that it is I that had done the bargaining.
But my bargaining did not make
the cost of that item to be what I was presenting in the books of accounts because
I had paid a different amount all together.
That was the beginning of my understanding
of how money can sway and derail an individual. And it could have been the
start of my rationalizing of use of money for my own benefit and not for the
benefit of the cause to which I had been called.
3. How were you able to diagnose yourself
of the situation in 2 above?
By virtual of being the very
person that had bought the furniture, I knew how much I had paid for it - that
was the truth of the matter. By inflating it or by trying to say that I had
bargained, that money I was taking off as mine was actually not my money. That
is where the concept of being convicted that I am now stealing comes in. The
amount I had paid for the item was the purchase price of the furniture whether
I had bargained or not. The money I actually paid was the truth. Anything over
and above or below that figure was not truth.
So for me, knowing the truth is
what convicted me into the right direction.
4. As a Christian, what practical things
did you do to put money back in its biblically right place?
One critical thing I have
learnt over time is that money has got to be earned by working. To work, the
whole concept of toiling, is an act of worship; it is God who initiated it not
us. Therefore by us earning money otherwise, we are doing something contrary to
what God wants us to do.
The other side of the coin is
that because we live in a corrupt system, a corrupt world and we are also
corrupt, it calls for a lot of self control in terms of understanding our needs
and working towards them.
This whole idea of trying to
get rich quick, trying to get things quick, means you are cheating to get what
you want. And for me that is not the way
I want(ed) my life to go. If I am to get anything, I should be able to work for
it.
One has also got to understand
some basic principles of life. The moment you peg your life on taking the
change (locally referred to as balance) it becomes part of your system, your
understanding and part of your means to achieving a given end. And one has to
get to a point where they understand that this understanding is not right
before God; we have got to listen to what God tells us in such circumstances
and respond accordingly.
For me because I was in
control of the money it was easy. I did return the money the next day. All I
had to do was go back to the seller and ask him for a receipt with the actual
amount I had paid. But in some circumstances
it might be hard for someone to return what they took say ten years ago. And
that is where we all need to repent. We need to acknowledge that what we did
was not right and bring our minds to understanding that pocketing the change is
not right, it is in fact stealing. And that conviction has got to be deeply
seated in your mind. Otherwise your understanding of what God says about money
is already derailed and you will not be able to live within God’s parameters.
5. The more money people get, the more
they seem to want just for the sake of having more. What can one do to avoid
falling prey to this trend?
We need to agree on one thing
here: that we are all corrupted by virtual of our sinful nature. Much of the
world system propels the agenda that the more you have, the safer you feel. We
have transferred our sense of security from God to material stuff and one of
the reasons is because it is more tangible and kind of gives instant solutions.
When you have money you feel like you can solve everything. And as a result of
that our minds have shifted from trusting God to trusting other things which is
in fact idol worship. It is a process
where we allow the world system and not God through His word to inform us of
who we are and our complete dependence on God and His provisions. The more we
look outside God’s word to the world, the more we drift from trusting God to
trusting the world more.
It takes spending time, being
connected with God for one to build that confidence and know that our trust should
be in none other than God Himself. It has to do with building your faith in
Christ, building your faith in God, all the time. Because at the end of the day
and over time even those with big amounts of money get to a point where money
cannot solve their problems. There are certain things about our lives that
money can never solve. But for us to get to that level of understanding, we
have got to keep our connection with God. Allowing His spirit, prayer and His word
to be a part of every single moment of our lives.
