Devotional:
Mark 8.36
For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?
When I do pre-marital counseling sessions I have a set of questions I use to get the conversation going. I always start with “What was your last fight about?” It knocks the couple back for a second, but then very quickly they can share with me a disagreement that they recently worked through (more often than not it has to do with wedding invitations!). All couples fight about something, and so instead of advocating for no fighting, I do what I can to help them see how they already reconcile their differences, and then encourage them to work on those practices.
Later in the conversation I will ask, “Why do you want me to perform the service?” The question isn’t about me particularly, but more to the point of having a church wedding. Many couples might think they want a church wedding, but they’ll come to pastor and ask for it to happen in a church but “without the God stuff.” I am of the opinion that if a couple does not want the Lord’s blessing on their wedding, then its probably better to be done in a local courthouse than in the Lord’s house.
But of all the questions, the one that usually stumps couples the most is, “How much money is too much money?” Most respond with something like, “There’s such a thing as too much money?!” But then I’ll ask the question again. Many couples getting married are young and not quite in a position to be swimming in the dough, but a time could come in which they will make more than they need. And so I ask if they’ve ever contemplated how much money would be enough money, and what would they like to do with the rest.
It should come as no surprise that the most prevalent reason for divorce today is money. Whether it’s hiding money in a separate account, or arguments about how much to spend on a certain item, or not saving enough for the future, or a great number of other financial disagreements – money is at the heart of divorce more often than not.
And so, as a couple prepares to embark on the strange territory that is marriage, I ask, “How much money is too much money?” I ask the question to get them thinking about finances now, and later, but also to get them to think about what their lives are all about.
We are trapped in a world where the accumulation of wealth is the end all be all, but what will it profit us to gain everything at the expense of our lives? Is the time we spend at work making money more important than the time we spend with our friends and families? What will be more important at the end of our days, the money in the bank or the people we share our lives with?
think and let think 
Jim, this is written by a UM minister in Woodbridge, VA, a man about your age. He came to Grove when he was a student at RU, just a year or two before he transferred to JMU. Just thought he asks some valuable questions that we need to answer for ourselves and to ponder until we have come to some conclusions.
My godmother Melba Brownlow was executive secretary to the president of Hanes. I remember that Mr. Hanes of the Winston-Salem Hanes garment companies, was asked by an older couple who had a little farm adjoining one of his large ones that he kept badgering them to sell to him, why he thought he had to have their land. They said, “Do you think you have to have all the land, Mr. Hanes?” He said, “No, just all that touches mine.” How much is enough? A good question.
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