True Riches - Book Review
Piggybacking off their original book, God & Money, John Cortines and Greg Baumer wrote True Riches to concentrate on the heart transformations they discovered on their financial journeys with God. After realizing that they were trying to serve both God and Money, they felt compelled to throw away the American Dream and live for the glory of God in lieu of self.
True Riches is an easy read, broken into five chapters. Each chapter ends with 2-5 minutes of homework that can be completed individually or in a group setting (which they would encourage). Through the application sections, they hope to create a simple framework that helps any reader contextualize their financial situation and move into a freedom filled life of generosity.
Chapter 1 – The Big Question
The first chapter starts with a big question – “How are my finances shaping my heart?”
John and Greg’s friendship started with a similar passion and desire, to hand everything they have to God, but they both realized money was taking a hold of their heart in different ways. John is inherently a saver and idolized such, while Greg idolized stuff and experiences, falling prey to a life of indulgence. Neither could get enough. For John, he could not find peace in his savings, and Greg could not find peace in his consumption.
The remaining four chapters break down four spiritual transformations they experienced on their financial journey to grow in stewardship and honor God with His wealth. They saw a move from pride to gratitude, from coveting to contentment, from anxiety to trust and from indifference to love!
Chapter 2 – From Pride to Gratitude
John and Greg remind the reader that we can often become entitled, thinking that what we have has come out of something that we conjured up. In reality, every good gift comes from God:
My skills are given by God.
The family that raised me is from God.
The company I work for is allowed to exist because of God.
The teachers, friends and mentors in my life are from God.
If we do not realize our need for a gracious savior to bring life and help us stand daily, we will continue to walk back to pride which will quench our ability to move into a heart attitude of gratitude.
Chapter 3 – From Coveting to Contentment
Because we have traded our ego and pride for a heart of gratitude, we can move into a posture of contentment. This means that no matter the circumstances we cease striving to fill our never-ending desire for more.
Here John and Greg emphasize how vital simplicity and contentment are in our day-to-day lives. Creating margin allows God the room to work. It creates the bandwidth to think outside of yourself, an impossibility if we are amid coveting!
Practicing can help us grow in contentment and a great first step is creating margin with your finances. Just because we can make a lifestyle fit inside our paycheck, does not mean it should belong there. In fact, we can create self-inflicted burdens of “needing more” (e.g. coveting) as we push our lifestyles up to the brim of each paycheck. Some even presume upon the paychecks of tomorrow to meet their lifestyles today!
Gaining simplicity and contentment may not come with ease. It may mean changing your lifestyle in a significant way that may look like foolishness in the eyes of the world. Although it may be difficult, it can also lead to true freedom.
Chapter 4 – From Anxiety to Trust
While chapter three spends more time homing in on indulgence, chapter four attacks our heart posture with savings.
Amid John’s predisposition to save, he concluded he had a trust issue and that he was saving like a fool. Yes, you heard that correctly, we can save to a point of foolishness, and we can spend like a fool.
Over saving shows God that we have a trust problem. We are not trusting the ultimate provider to come through, or we are fearful that he won’t come through in the “right way.”
This begs a question from the book - “What is enough?” or “What are your financial finish lines?”
Although John and Greg would encourage readers to consider a lower “enough” bar, they do encourage savings and help readers with a framework that is broken into three phases:
1. Create a small cushion of $2,000
2. Try to get out of bad debt (non-mortgage) quickly by putting 20-40% of income towards it.
3. Save towards long-term goals - Their families have decided on a 25-35% range, while ensuring their giving is in the 15-25% range. This should shift as they age and get closer to “enough.”
Chapter 5 – From Indifference to Love
John and I may be cut from a similar cloth when it comes to empathy. God has had to do significant growing in that area of our hearts. Thankfully, God’s care and empathy greatly exceeds that of ours and He is not ok with us staying in a state of indifference. Although we may wrestle with indifference, that doesn’t exclude us from the responsibility to obediently give.
John and Greg point out that the joy we receive from giving can manifest itself after much practice. In fact, it took John about 4 years of habitual giving for his heart to catch up to where his money was already going. Don’t fall into the trap of waiting for your heart to get there, because it may never happen if there is no giving in the first place.
It’s also important to dig into the numbers of what you give, because the gap between what we think and what we do can be significant. The authors point to a study where 70% of Millennials claim to be generous, but only 16% gave at least $50 to a church or charity in the previous year. Know your numbers and be intentional because God cares about what we do.
As we move from indifference to love we may recognize that needs abound in this world. This can leave many struggling with where to start or all together paralyzed. Thankfully, the Bible gives us three priorities to give towards so we can take part in his kingdom work.
1.) Serving the poor
2.) Sharing the Gospel
3.) Strengthening the fold
Conclusion
God wants you to join Him on the journey that will bring you the most fulfillment and joy and Him the most glory. He is more interested in your success as an obedient follower than what you have accumulated. He wants your pride to turn into gratitude, your coveting to turn into contentment, your anxiety to turn into trust and your indifference to turn into love. To experience this, it will cost you everything on earth, but you will gain true riches.
