Surviving Without Money

Daniel Suelo of Moab, Utah claims he has “figured out that the best way to stay solvent is to never be solvent in the first place.” (Source: Details.Com)
Image source: Details.Com

 Almost 10 years ago, he just decided to quit money. He lives in a cave. He eats wild plants, grubs, lizards and roadkill. He also scavenges leftovers in the garbage in a nearby desert town. Yet, he is no crazy hermit. He has a degree in anthropology from the University of Colorado. 

But a tour with the Peace Corps in an Ecuadoran village jolted him. Tasked to monitor the health of the villagers, he saw how they sank as they took on “the economics of modernity.” With the earnings from their produce, they bought things they didn’t really need. Suelo sadly noted, “The more they spent, the more their health declined. It looked like money was impoverishing them.” (Ibid)
Image source: BBC World
Mixing Christianity and Buddhism, he then decided to give up on money. “When I lived with money, I was always lacking. Money represents lack. Money represents things in the past (debt) and things in the future (credit), but money never represents what is present.” (Ibid) Suelo grants that money is not evil. He wrote in his blog (which he maintains through the free internet in a public library), “Money is illusion. Illusion is neither good nor evil. Attachment to illusion is evil. Attachment to illusion is called idolatry.” (Ibid) Now, I believe living below one’s means is better than living within. But I do find “zero currency” way too extreme for me. 
Image source: http://4closurefraud.org/

 Before anyone of us would attempt to do away with money, I think we need to revisit what the Bible really says about wealth. It is interesting that in 16 out of the 38 stories (or 1 in every 3 parables), our Lord Jesus Christ spoke on wealth. And in 1 out of every 10 verses in the Gospels, He taught about financial management. That’s more than verses on heaven and hell combined! There are 2,350 verses on wealth in the Bible—twice as many as the verses on faith and prayer. That doesn’t mean that money can usher us to heaven or doom us to hell. That doesn’t mean that a wealthy person has more faith or a poor person does not pray. 

My take? What we do with the material things God gave us are important to Him.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God Knows Judas Not Pay

In the National Geographic Magazine (May 2006 issue), in its cover story, The Judas Gospel , Professor Eliane Pagels of Princeton University claimed that the so-called gospel of Judas “ changes the history of early Christianity. ” Even UP Professor Randy David took notice of the Judas Gospel: “Strictly from a sociological standpoint, I think the discovery of the Gospel of Judas makes Christianity a far more interesting religion than what centuries of metaphysical theology has made of it.” (A Gospel for the Postmodern, Phil. Daily Inquirer, April 16, 2006) That’s why I spoke in our Young Pro Fellowship a few days ago on God Knows Judas Not Pay (A Biblical Response on the Judas Gospel). I believe opportunities like this hype on the Judas Gospel or the Da Vinci Code opens a door for us to share the true Gospel. For those who did not attend last Thursday, let me share briefly why we reject the Judas gospel. I came up with the acronym J-U-D-A-S. J udas was portrayed as a traitor in the Bibl
Read more

“Ubus-ubos Biyaya, Bukas Nakatunganga”

Image
That’s what my mother always told us when we were still kids. (Translation: “You spend everything today, you will have nothing tomorrow.” ) Image source: So, What's New ? Dionie did just that. Last April 2008, he won PHP14,125,032 in the Lotto 6/42 draw. Excitedly, he “lived the life of a millionaire, something he had been longing to experience. He lived in a P4-million house in a posh subdivision, drove around in a sports utility vehicle [which he bought the very same day he claimed his prize] , and gave goodwill money, ranging P1,000 to P 850,000, to relatives and friends. He also gambled daily, womanized, and went on regular drinking sprees.” (Source: Manila Bulletin ) He estimated that he squandered a minimum of P100,000 almost every day. He also lent money even to people he did not really know. “I just gave them and told them not to pay me back.” (Ibid) His bank had to issue him a special card so he can withdraw huge amounts of money quickly from the automated teller m
Read more

“Don’t drink the Kool-Aid!”

Image
Forty years ago, this expression became known as a description of blind obedience.   Source: Los Angeles Times On November 18, 1978, members of Peoples Temple, a cult group in Guyana, drank Kool-Aid drink laced with cyanide to commit a mass suicide “at the behest of their charismatic but paranoid leader, Jim Jones”. [1] According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica , “The death toll exceeded 900, including some 300 age 17 and under, making the incident one of the largest mass deaths in American history. ”  [2]  What made those people submit to such atrocity? According to Stella Morabito, a senior contributor to The Federalist online magazine, Peoples Temple is “Exhibit A… [of]  the dangers of the cult mindset or how vulnerable all people are to cult tactics.”  [3] She pointed out that, Coercive persuasion has immense power to shape and twist the human mind.  …[Jones’] utopian preaching of a humane world in which all lived happily in harmony resonated with the
Read more