Someone in my life came to me a couple of months ago and asked for advice on how to pay for his last semester of college. I began to lay out the options that he had; like I have done many times with other college-age individuals. We got to the point where we realized that he would have to take out a small loan. When I went through the different options with him on that, he elected to go with a higher interest rate option of a private lender than attempt to qualify for the federally subsidized Stafford loan because qualifying for the loan would require him to ask his parents for their income tax return. He didn't like this idea because he didn't think his parents would give him that information because they wouldn't want him to know how much they made.

Now I would like to think this is just a weird incident, but I have come to realize that people will talk about anything before they will talk about money. Seriously. Think about it. People will share intimate details of their sex life before talking about their money. People will talk about the medication they are on before they talk about money. Men will share their struggles with pornography, and woman their struggles with eating disorders; but if you bring up money…whoa that’s none of your business.

Maybe it is because I really don't look to anybody for a handout, especially those who have a lot of money. Maybe it is because I live my life pretty transparent in other areas, so I don't think money should be any different. But for whatever reason, I just don't get why money is such a big deal.

A few years ago, a mentor of mine in the ministry made a comment about the fact he makes his IRS income tax return available to anybody in his congregation who wanted to see it. He did this for accountability reasons so that people could see that he practiced what he preached when it came to giving 10% of your income. I often reflected on that conversation and I realized that while I think that is good, it is only half the story. Giving is only half the picture when it comes to money. Materialism and greed are the other half. So from that point on, I have always made my entire financial income / expense report available online for the past six years (when I started keeping track of every penny I made and spent, and yes, I know, I am anal retentive).

It has gotten me in a little trouble from time to time - usually from people who think I make too much. But yet there are people in the tech community that think I make way too little for the job and services I provide. And maybe that is why people are afraid to talk about money. Maybe we have wrapped so much of our identity and self-wroth in our income. To share about our money means to literally share our most intimate identification of our (or our families) self-worth. But I still have to ask the question, why? Why does money say anything about identity at all?

1Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

I think it is a pretty freeing thing to acknowledge the truth in this verse. When we are no longer a slave to our money, we are no longer a slave to the perceptions that come with it. We find our true self-worth in our relationship with God and each other and not how many zeros are on our income tax return.