Barnabas Foundation Blog

For someone who began a banking career at age 17, Elanor sure had a low opinion of money. “I hated it,” she explains. “Customers were so rude, and the more money they had, the ruder they were!” Then Elanor came to know Jesus Christ as her Savior and Lord. Slowly, her perspective on wealth began to change.

Someone recently told me about a meaningful experience he’d shared with his father as a young man. At that time, he had believed in Jesus, but he did not love Him. The gentleman recalled how his father had placed his hand on his shoulder and said, “It’s okay. When you are my age, you will come to love Jesus the way I do – and you will want to serve Him because of the way you love Him.”

Inside Doug and Traci’s Journey of Generosity Just nine years ago, Traci had a rare type of heart attack called a “spontaneous coronary artery dissection.” Her arteries were pristine, but somehow, they tore. “That was a wake-up call from the Lord,” recalls Traci. “When you have a life-changing event, God gets a hold of your heart and refocuses your priorities.

Every spring, my wife and I enjoy planting flowers and vegetables in our garden together. We have an annual ritual where we go to a friend’s local greenhouse to select our bedding plants. Sometime back in February, I drove by that greenhouse and was surprised to already see a large pallet of bedding soil out front. It occurred to me that our springtime purchase of flowers is made possible because of those who have already readied the beds, planted and watered the seeds and meticulously prepared for the planting season.

As seasons change in our lives, we face a number of decisions – sometimes based on our own timing, and other times because of circumstances outside of our control. I have met a few people who always seem to have the ability to see the future and make decisions before those decisions are thrust upon them. This might be as simple as buying a new car at the right time, downsizing, simplifying their lifestyles or other decisions like that. I admire how they take a proactive rather than a reactive approach to life.

“Is God worried?” In a recent conversation with a close friend, he repeated this question we had both heard by a Christian musical artist in the previous week. Of course, we both knew the answer — even though the issues we were discussing seemed insurmountable, as they so often do.

“I wasn’t feeling the reward anymore.” That’s how Joan recalls the work running her family’s foundation. “Actually, some bitterness had grown,” she recalls. Reaching her breaking point, Joan decided to speak with her dad, who had set up the foundation. “I told him it was just too much work,” she says, “that we either had to hire somebody, or figure out a different way to do this.” That’s when the family reached out to Barnabas Foundation and learned about the Stewards Fund (donor-advised fund). “It was the perfect solution!” she exclaims.

Dirty money. It’s not just the Netflix series about corporate corruption. It’s the headline some believers apply to money.