Since I’m already breaking one cultural taboo in talking about money, I thought I’d go for all three today.

One of the reasons I started this blog was to work out my own fraught relationship with money. I was raised to believe what Jesus said:

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

In other words, our goals of getting ahead in this world directly conflict with our spiritual relationship, which, in practice, is interacting with each other in love.

Believing that money is the root of all evil (a belief also reinforced by a lot of our culture — when was the last time you saw a movie about people chasing money who didn’t come to great ruin?) makes it tough to armor up and believe what you must in the world to make a living: I’m worthy of money, and here are the steps I’m going to take to secure a living for me and my family and meet my goals.

Have you ever felt wracked with guilt over buying yourself some new clothes? A trip? A great dinner out? The very fact that you have so much when people all over the world have nothing? These are some ways this conflict often comes out for me.

Maybe you know what I’m talking about. Guilt is an unwelcome, unhelpful little gremlin. Most annoying, this kind of guilt is not what Jesus was even talking about. It’s a shrinking, the kind that Marianne Williamson, spiritual activist and author, says to just stop, already. In her book, “A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles” she writes:

“We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.”

I feel like I have a saner reaction of excitement when I see smart, creative people get rich. It’s a bonus if what they’ve done helps people, or when they’ve marshaled their wealth and success to help others.

But I find that there, too, I have to fight the gremlin again — the envy reflex, which says, “Well, they probably aren’t really happy,” or “They don’t really deserve it,” or “They must, in some way, fundamentally be a jerk. And that’s not for me, remember?” Ridiculous, small-minded, and ultimately unhelpful.

How does this relate to Barack Obama? He seems to share this same world view, this struggle for progress not to be overshadowed by our own darker impulses. A view that tries to reconcile paradox. That welcomes doubt. He has consistently tried to defy easy labels, easy answers, good vs. evil thinking. He is for hope over fear. And most of all, he thinks big, and wants us to think big, too. As Williamson writes again, “As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Obama’s view of America’s wealth is broad and inclusive, the idea being (if we can ever get out of our very serious debt), to build it up for all of us so that we can go about the business of creating, innovating, and helping each other. I don’t think, if he is elected, that the changes he wants to make will be easy. But I believe him when he says, “Yes, we can.”

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Tags:   eye of a needle · guilt · Jesus · Marianne Williamson · think big1 Comment