What Ten Million Shovels can teach us about Money

Let me ask you a simple question:  If I gave you ten million shovels, would that fundamentally change your life?

Probably not.

Indeed, if I offered to give you ten million shovels, you would probably decline the offer.  Even though you know that over time, you could probably sell most of those shovels and make a handsome profit, you probably wouldn't jump at the chance to start a business with the sole purpose of selling shovels.  Indeed, you would probably look at a warehouse full of shovels and just kinda shrug it off, and move on with your life. You wouldn't want the bother. You'd let the next guy in line have them.

Let me ask you another question:  If I gave you ten million dollars, would that fundamentally change your life?

"Absolutely!" you say.

It has been commonly taught over the years that money is a neutral thing. It's completely amoral. It's neither good nor bad in and of itself.  Dave Ramsey and a lot of pastors teach this.  Money is a mere tool, and could be likened to a shovel.  With a shovel, you could plant a beautiful garden.  Or, if you are a mobster, you can use a shovel to bury the body of somebody like Jimmy Hoffa.  Either way, the shovel is neither good nor bad, it's what you do with it that matters.

Right???

Yet I can't help but wonder, if money is so neutral as people usually say it is, then why is it that money has the ability to fundamentally change our lives in a way that shovels never can?

Ten million dollars has the power to change your life in the way ten million shovels never could.... unless you are Jimmy Hoffa.

Indeed, money changes people.

And if money can change people, then I think it is a bit dangerous for us to ever call money a neutral thing, and liken it unto a mere tool.  Indeed, I worry that those who say money is a neutral thing have already come under its spell, and aren't properly prepared for the responsibility of handling it.

People marry for money.  People divorce over money.  People fight for money.  People work hard for money.  People kill for money.  People risk their lives for money.  People worry about money.  People lose their souls over money.

If money's involvement in my life has the ability to possibly damn my soul, then maybe money isn't so neutral after all.  Maybe it is more than a mere tool.