The Million Dollar Question

What would you do with a million dollars?  Undoubtedly one of the most popular of all hypothetical questions.  At one time probably a very creative quandary or ice-breaker, but now more of a silly conjecture for which there is neither a right answer, a wrong answer, or an answer that will appease everyone.  Cleverly spun by the media, this query is often posed to actors who in one instant can appear as heroic ambassadors of good will, or instantly lose any generous credibility due their name, based on what they assure us they will spend the money on.  Furthermore, whether its our best friend, a game show winner or a billionaire turned philanthropist, the answer offered in usually just a split second leaves us feeling skeptical.  A more natural reaction than believing the answer is to pull out our theoretical measuring stick and gauge it against what we deem to be a satisfactory answer.  Unfortunately our motives lie more in sniffing out an incorrect response than continuing a topic we are serious about addressing.

How do we know then that someone is telling the truth?  Can we offer an honest response to this question?  I think there is an honest response and I will share a couple examples that compliment each other well.  Unfortunately neither of them offer substantial evidence, but merely a humble call to action, which for this circumstance I will gladly call hope.  Maybe you will read these thoughts cynically and be left disenchanted, after all money has a more profound way of leaving us feeling pessimistic than hopeful.  Just remember, these honest replies are not muddled up in hidden agendas, political platforms or egotism.  They come from people who do need to dwell on such conundrums.  They come from the poor.

Jesus witnessed firsthand what someone would have done, as written in Luke 21.  Remember, this is not a parable.

“The poor woman at the temple treasury deposited two very small copper coins.  This represented her giving out of her poverty, all that she had to live on.  The rich man who approached the same collection placed a larger monetary amount,” one that did not set him back financially as Jesus explained: “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put in more than all the others.  All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”  

One student at Rescue in Cambodia was posed the million dollar question.  Remember, many of these kids are victims of AIDS, homelessness and abuse, kids that didn’t have a dime to their name when they were scooped out of some very deplorable situations.  Same position as the poor widow, worse actually I’ll wager.  

Here was the response: “I’d try to help orphans and poor people find a place to live.”  I wasn’t in attendance for this class, but I’m sure I would’ve witnessed a generous round of head-nodding and murmured agreement.  We’re shocked by this answer.  The story about the poor widow is lost on us sometimes but this is 2012, there’s a lot of things you can do with a million bucks, especially if you need it like these kids, right?

What the “haves” envision a million dollars accomplishing is probably drastically different than what the “have-nots” would think.  The average North American might have that money spent by the time they’re finished answering the question.  I could tell you that these kids literally wouldn’t know what else to spend the money on and its because they never had it to begin with.  I suppose you could attribute their simple and generous answer to lack of education, or childish innocence, but is that really the path we want to take?  I have to say, I want to believe his answer, I do believe his answer.  I can search my heart and know darn well that if it’s my money it could be misused starting with the first dollar.  I know what its like to have money, to control my finances, to understand in theory how far a million dollars could go.  Alas, this is where the downward spiral comes into play, and many of us hope that we could do the right thing with the money but we would struggle greatly because we would not have in mind the things of God but the things of this world.  

To satisfy this dilemma, God gave me this verse.  The words stun me, because they give conformation and hope to what I’ve struggled to make sense of for a couple of weeks now.  It spoke perfectly to my heart because too often I am an outsider, too often polluted by this world and far from pure and blameless.  Its not about a million bucks, its not about five bucks, its about a call to action, God’s way, not our way.

James 1:27  “Religion that is pure and blameless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”