Time, Money, and Power

one

The Lowest order of goods

Whatever we will, we always will something that appears good but there’s an order of goods and our decisions should reflect those priorities.

First of all, there is the infinite, perfect Good, who is God. Then there is the good of perfecting the powers of our souls. Then there is the good of physical, bodily flourishing. Then there are the goods outside us, which can serve as opportunities for our flourishing. These are things like food, houses, books, workplaces, cars, and all sorts of things.

Now the lowest order of goods are goods outside us which aren’t even completely real in themselves. We could call them “potential” external goods. The main ones are money, time, and power. These are goods that don’t really have any substance or value in themselves, their only point is that they have the potential to get something else. If you’re going to go after them, you better be using them for some other good!

two

Money

Money exists to get or maintain other things. That’s the only point to having money. To want money for its own sake is psychotic. Imagine if someone said, “I have enough money to feed the third world,” and you said, “Wow, that’s great! I’m sure they’ll appreciate it!” And the rich person said, “No, I’m not actually going to feed them. I just like having the money.” What on earth would be the point of that?

Unfortunately, that’s the psychosis that consumes the world. We’ve completely lost sight of the fact that money is a mere means to other things. Now people just want a lot of money. Then, once they have a lot of money, they want more.

That’s crazy. You only want as much money as you need to get the relatively few things that can be occasions for the health of body and mind. That’s not really that much.

Everybody knows money won’t make you physically fit, won’t make you smart, won’t make you educated, won’t make you good at an instrument and won’t make you patient with your kids. And it certainly won’t make you holy.

Yet money is probably the biggest distraction most people have from these more important things, to the point that Scripture tells us that the love of money is the root of all evil.

It’s important to remember that money isn’t a bad thing. It’s a good. But it’s the lowest of all goods. So make sure you don’t make it your highest priority.

three

Time

Time is very much like money. It provides you with the opportunity to do some good, to realize some perfection in yourself or someone else. Like money, people foolishly think there’s something desirable about hoarding time, storing up as much time for themselves as they possibly can. But time, like money, is meant to be spent on other things.

It’s meant to be used to develop your mind, to cultivate a life of prayer, and to develop the skills you need to fulfill your state in life. It’s meant to be squandered extravagantly on the people you love, and on the people who need your love. Being a miser of time, like a miser of money, is to stifle its potential, and to ensure that any good it might have done is never born.

four

Power/Influence

Like money and time, power and influence is only good insofar as they lead to some other good. They have no value apart from that.

Imagine someone told you they had a superpower, say, the power to fly, but that they’d never actually used it. You’d say, “What on earth is the point of having a power like that if you never use it?!” And yet it’s amazing how, especially as they approach middle age, so many people want to have a position of authority, or influence… just to have it! Authority and influence shouldn’t be desirable in themselves, the only reason to have them is if there’s some concrete good you can promote.

People want to feel like they’ve “made an impact” but that’s ridiculous.

The only thing that makes sense is to want to make a good impact. And to the extent that you don’t have the opportunity to do that, you should avoid positions of influence more than you court them.

five

An Efficiency-Driven Culture

When we’ve forgotten the goals of human existence, human flourishing in this life, and the blessed union with God in the next, then the only thing left to pursue are things which are merely means.

Put differently, when we get obsessed with the means of money, power, time, then it’s an indication we’ve lost sight of the ends. We evaluate everything based on “efficiency”, which usually means how we can make the most possible money in as little time as possible, so we can use the rest of our time with the power to do whatever we want.

But we’re not put on this earth to just pile up potential. We’re put on this earth to actualize our potential. The goal is to be generous with our time and money, not stingy with it, and to use whatever power we have to grow in holiness and help our neighbor.

Beyond that, time and money and power are just distractions. So ask God to preserve you from the pervasive inversion of means and ends. Ask Him to detach you from the lowest order of goods, except just insofar as you need these things in order to do His will.