"Where Did All the Money Go?"

Jason Trigg is working very hard to earn as much money as he can.  I am trying to think of what is the opposite of that goal.  Working as hard as I can without worrying about how much I make?  Or, working as hard as I need to work in order to meet the needs I have?  Or how about, I am working as hard as I need to work to pay for all of the “wants” I have added to my list of needs? Which of those options describe you? There are certainly others ways to describe why we work, but our work choices:  how hard we choose to work and why,  do say a great deal about us.

Which brings me back to Jason Trigg.  Mr. Trigg is a smart guy with very marketable skills, being a graduate of the prestigious MIT computer science program. (Christian Century 6.26.13) What is unique about Mr. Trigg’s vocational choice is not that he is working as hard as he can to make as much as he can, but that he is doing so for the express purpose of giving away as much money as he can.  The story I read explains that Mr. Trigg works at his Wall Street hedge fund company so that he can give money to his favorite charity, Against Malaria Foundation, which estimates that a gift of $2500 saves one life.   The philosophy behind this approach to work is that it is just as important, if not more important, to give money so that Africans can dig wells than to actually go to Africa to drill them.  The whole concept of “mission” work moves from “going to Africa” (or wherever you might see a need) to sending money so that the people there can help themselves.

Now, this isn’t to say that mission trips are not important. They are important and they do serve a valuable purpose. But, frankly, in today’s world there are fewer and fewer people who are able to take time during their “work years” to take even a week for a mission trip.  So what if we thought of our “work” as our “mission.” What if we could see our hours clocked behind a machine or a computer or a lawn mower as a contribution to saving a life?  Then, when at the end of the month we ask where all the money we earned went, we could smile because we would know that we worked as hard as we  could to give away as much as we can.

Why will you work this week? What will you do with the money you earn?  Would you like your job better if, like Mr. Trigg, your goal in making money was to give it away?