Afi Ruel When I was in the military, I was what you call a Supply Officer – which is basically a logistician. Depending on where I was at the time, I had a hand in managing budgets, ordering parts, coordinating transportation, and other functions that vitally supported warfighters. I never understood the disdain warfighters and operators had for support people like me. Not all of them were like this, but enough were. Towards the end of my time in the military, I took to communicating with them in a way that made it clear that without people like me, their mission wouldn’t happen. After all, they had to eat the food we supplied, use the parts we ordered, sleep in the tents we included in their gear and make it to their mission in the transportation we arranged. Someone had to fund and map out the logistics of their mission or else it wasn’t happening. Perhaps that was why they felt the way they did. They knew they were dependent on us, and instead of being grateful they wanted to make sure we “knew our place”.
As a Christian, I never understood why people who have gifts they can monetize are sometimes made to feel guilty about using their gifts to make money. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told that I should use a skill I have to make things to donate, or that I was sitting on my gifts because I didn’t use them in the way a particular person thought I should (which was to do something for THEM for free). Now I understand why this happens. If that person had your gifts, they would likely use them to make money and not give to the believing community in any way that is meaningful. That’s crazy to me, because someone has to finance the kingdom of God.
Jesus’ ministry had a treasurer. (Read that again and let it sink in) This means that something within his ministry was being monetized. Otherwise, there was no need for a treasurer. If Jesus’ ministry was making money, how is it wrong for a person to use the talents and gifts that same God gave them to make money? I can hear someone now saying “Yeah, and that treasurer embezzled the money and betrayed Jesus”. This is true. But that doesn’t change the fact that the money was there in the first place. It also doesn’t change the fact that Jesus and the people who rolled with him had physical needs that were likely attended to by the MONEY that the MINISTRY MADE! If you are a believer and you have monetizable gifts, make your money. Live a good life. Don’t let ANYONE pimp your gifts. And use some of that money to uplift the community of believers around you too. Someone has to finance the kingdom and it may as well be you.
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