What Steve Smith can teach you about money

There are a lot of things that don’t go together.  Good and evil.  N.C. State and Carolina.  Politicians and common sense.  Professional athletes and the ability to handle money.  Enter Steve Smith, the most popular wide receiver to ever play for my beloved Carolina Panthers.  I have loved watching #89 play since the Sunday afternoon that he caught a pass over the middle from Jake Delhomme against the St. Louis Rams and took it 69 yards for a score in overtime to get to Panthers closer to their only Super Bowl appearance.

He’s been a controversial player, for sure.  He’s had great one-handed catches that made me cheer, and he’s used that same hand to pummel a teammate in training camp.  He’s had amazing touchdown celebrations and awful, bone-headed reactions that led to devastating penalties.  At times he’s been great, and at other times he’s just grated.  He’s a lot like me, and probably like you, too, and seeing how he gets scrutinized for everything he does makes me glad that people don’t follow me around like they follow him around.  But that’s not the point.  The point is that he’s got something to teach you and me about money, and it may be the first time I’ve ever read a quote from a professional athlete about the green stuff that made me think that.

I found this out as I was reading, err, researching, current events on ESPN’s website yesterday, and I ran across this article in which Steve Smith tried to lay to rest the rumors that he wants to be traded to another team.  Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t, but one of the reasons that people have speculated about it is the fact that his Charlotte home has been on the market for about a year now.  Typically, a FOR SALE sign in the yard is a pretty good indication that the people who own it are moving on, so it’s understandable that people might wonder if Smith was headed somewhere else.  But as Smith explains in the interview,

I think it’s important that people realize I am not packing my bags. As far as why my house is for sale, we built this huge house and we just don’t have any business living in it. It seemed like a great idea, and then we moved into this big house. We started cringing at all that space we had. For me, it was a little bit vain that I have this big house with this big yard.

At this point, I was already saying “wow” under my breath.  Did a pro athlete just say that having something too big for him was vain?  I was growing to like Smith even more, and then I read his next statement:

People saw my house was on sale and said it was me sending a message. Really the message I sent was to my kids: Dad made a mistake. This isn’t how we are supposed to live. This isn’t what I should be projecting. If we don’t do this now, what incentive do I give my kids to reach for? You make a lot of money and then you go blow it? I don’t want to be a statistic. I want to be a good steward.

I almost literally got out of my chair and bowed to a poster of Smith.  Here’s a guy who is one of the best receivers in the game today, who is making upwards of $7 million a year, and he’s telling his children that he made a mistake by projecting that he has the right to blow his money on things he and his family don’t need.  Let’s bottom line it before we move on: an NFL star is downsizing.

Let that sink in.  He’s buying a smaller house, a house more suitable to their needs instead of their wants.  He’s aware of his responsibility as a steward, not just his ability as a spender.

You and I can learn a lot from those two statements.  No one is immune from the pressure to over-purchase.  All of us feel the ever-creeping presence of more, and my guess is that most of us know all too well the tight feeling that comes when we realize we’ve got way too much of the things that just get in the way.

I’m reminded of another man who had a lot, and then came to realize he didn’t need it.  Paul wrote these words to the Philippians:

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. (Philippians 3:4-6)

Translation?  Paul was at the top of his game, a sought-after religious free agent, and he’d accumulated quite a bounty of well-deserved stuff.  But something happened.  He saw something, or someone.  Just like Steve Smith saw his children and it made him wonder about his financial priorities, Paul saw Jesus, and seeing Jesus caused all that stuff to turn into, well, I’m not sure I can write the actual word since The Blog Channel is family-friendly.  The nice folks over at the NIV cleaned it up by using “rubbish” in verse 8, but the actual word is more like the word that gets bleeped.  Paul saw his stuff pale in light of the value of Christ and His cause.

Seeing a greater cause makes all the difference in how we see our money and possessions.  It makes us stewards, not spenders.  Givers, not keepers.  More aware of others’ need of salvation than our own need for recreation.

I can hear you asking about balance, and I really want to write that we’re supposed to seek balance in all of this, but to be honest, I’m starting to have a hard time reconciling our need for balance with the overwhelming weight of Scripture that demands our all.  Zacchaeus gave it all, and he was a just a wee little man. Paul gave it all.  Jesus gave it all, and let a rich young ruler walk away sad because he wouldn’t.

Giving everything isn’t balanced.  It’s irrational.  Uncomfortable.  It’s the kind of action that keeps us up at night wrestling with our own doubts and busy during the day defending ourselves against the doubts of others.  It is full of tension: on the one hand we want to trust, and on the other we know that the only way to do that is to cut the tether.

How does it all play out practically?  I’m not sure.  Perhaps it starts with asking the simple things.  Do I really trust God?  Do I really need what I have?  Am I willing to take a step away from balance and a step toward the radical Savior Who gave it all in order to draw me to Himself?

Who knows where questions like that may lead you and me, but for now, it isn’t about trying to see so far into the future that we become paralyzed in the present.  It’s just about taking the first step.  For Steve Smith, it was hammering a FOR SALE sign into his front yard.

What will it be for you?

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