When Money Becomes a Master (and How God Used It Anyway)
A lesson I didn’t know I was learning—until someone else needed it too
Last year, I had to get some unexpected plumbing work done on my house.
It ended up costing about $11,000.
That’s a lot of money for me. I didn’t know how I was going to pay for it. I already had money going to other things, and everything felt tight.
I talked with my accountant, and she gave me good advice:
Don’t pull all the money out at once. Take a little at a time.
Financially, that plan worked. My investments continued to grow, and the market had a good year. On paper, things looked fine.
But inside, something wasn’t right.
When the Numbers Work, but the Heart Doesn’t
Even though the plan was “working,” my thoughts were heavy.
I kept thinking:
I’m not adding to my investments.
I’m not growing what I worked hard to build.
Every month feels stretched.
And on top of that, everything has gotten more expensive over the last couple of years.
Then I had to go to the doctor for something that needed to be checked out. The cost kept rising:
$1,200… $1,600… maybe $4,000.
At that point, I realized I couldn’t keep living like this.
So I did something different.
I pulled the money out in one large chunk.
Yes, I’ll probably pay more in taxes later.
But I paid the bills.
And I felt relief.
That’s when it hit me.
I Was Serving the Money
Somewhere along the way, I stopped letting money serve me and started serving the money.
I wasn’t just managing investments—I was letting them rule my peace.
Jesus’ words came to mind in a new way:
“No man can serve two masters… Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
(Matthew 6:24, KJV)
Mammon isn’t just money.
It’s when money becomes the thing that controls your thoughts, your peace, and your decisions.
Money is meant to be a tool, not a master.
I can rebuild investments.
I can recover financially.
But what mattered most was realizing that God had already been faithful. He had allowed me to build those resources in the first place. And when I let go, peace returned.
A Christmas Conversation I Didn’t Expect
On Christmas Day, a friend reached out to wish me a Merry Christmas.
She told me she was thankful she had met me, and that when she thinks about evangelism, she thinks about me—and wants to be as bold.
That humbled me. Truly.
Then she asked a simple question. It’s one of her favorites:
“Is there anything you’ve been learning?”
I shared several things, but then I knew this was the one thing I needed to tell her.
So I shared this story—the plumbing bill, the stress, and how I realized I was serving money instead of letting it serve me.
Her response surprised me.
She said her husband was about to take a different job. It would be less money, but a better job. And they were going to have to dip into their investments.
She was standing right where I had just been.
God’s Timing Is Better Than We See
That moment stopped me.
I don’t know if everything I went through happened for that conversation, or if God simply used it at the right time. Maybe it was both.
But I’m thankful.
I was able to encourage her—not with theory, but with something I had just lived through.
And that’s why I’m sharing this here.
Not because I feel an unction of the Lord to say it—but because it might help someone else who is walking through the same tension right now.
Sometimes the lesson isn’t about making more money.
Sometimes it’s about remembering who is supposed to be serving whom.