Step #4: Don’t Allow Money and Possessions to Take Control of Your Life

People easily make the sometimes fatal, (yes fatal) mistake of letting money and possessions rule their lives.

Even if this doesn’t kill you, you can make the huge mistake of placing relationships above money and possessions. It boils down to what is truly important to you.

Learn from the mistakes of others…

The Franklin Expedition of 1845
Men Died Trying to Save Their Money and Possessions

Author Annie Dillard writes about the ill-fated Franklin Expedition of 1845 in her book "Teaching a Stone to Talk."

Two ships set off from England to explore the Northwest Passage near the North Pole.

They left incredibly unprepared.

Though their ships were laden with fine china, expensive goblets and solid silver tableware and even had a 1,200 volume library on board ... they left with only a 12-day emergency supply of coal for the steam engines.

Quite predictably, they met with disaster.

The ships became stuck in the ice. As it expanded, the ice crushed the wooden hulls and forced the crew to abandon ship. After several months of being stranded, Lord Franklin died and the rest of the men decided to split up into small groups to head in various directions to try and find help. Sadly, no one survived.

When the rescuers came by later to try and ascertain what had happened, they were heartbroken by the reality.

In one case, they found two officers who had traveled in the bitter cold 65 miles from the mother ships. These two officers had pulled an enormous sled they had crafted over these incredible mounds of ice.

They had labored for 65 miles pulling this sled, but died not far from the base camp where they would have been saved.

Had they left the sled behind, they most likely would have made it to the safety of the base camp.

Do you know what the rescuers found on the sled? ... The ship's silverware, some china and a large number of gold coins!

In the face of fighting for their very survival ... they could not let go of the "stuff" ... and it cost them their lives!

As sad as that story is ... The question for each of us is ... "Do we find different ways to do similar things in our own lives? Do we have trouble letting go of the very stuff (money and possessions) that endangers our wellbeing?" Each of us must answer that question and respond ...

The 200 Pounds of Gold … What is Really in Control?

John Ruskin recounts this story ...

"In a shipwreck, one of the passengers was found at the bottom of the ocean with a belt fastened around him with 200 pounds of gold on it. “

As he was sinking, ... did he have the gold ... or did the gold have him!

How Often do we “Break Expensive Vases?”

A toddler got his hand stuck inside a very expensive vase.

They tried everything to get him free ... from oil to Vaseline to WD-40 ... all to no avail.

Finally, when nothing worked they were forced to break the vase ... only to discover the boy had found a penny in the vase and refused to let it go.

Think about it ... have we broken expensive vases because we refused to let go of the "penny?"

When it comes to money and possessions... Who is really in charge?

1960 Quote from John Steinbeck Regarding Money and Possessions

Is he correct? … can it happen to us as individuals?

“Strange species we are, we can stand anything God and Nature can throw at us, except for plenty. If I wanted to destroy a country, if I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much and I would have it on its knees, miserable and sick.”

Dr. Michael Lerner reports that money and possessions can cause depression, rather than happiness…

“The rate of clinical depression in the U.S. today is 10 times what it was before 1945.
As Americans become more obsessed with pursuing affluence, depression, anxiety and low self-esteem follow.”
He concluded, “Those individuals for whom accumulating wealth was a primary aspiration were associated with less self-actualization, less vitality, more depression and more anxiety.

This demonstrates the negative consequences of having money as an important guiding principle in life.”

Ask Yourself this about money and possessions…

“If there is any possession I can’t live without, I don’t own it … it owns me!”

Bill Hybels, speaker, author and pastor of the most influential church in America has given me a good perspective on money and possessions…

He says that he never buys anything of such value that he would ever hesitate to willing loan it to someone.

How often we acquire possessions we value so highly we end up spending enormous amounts of time and money maintaining and securing them, but would never share with others.(I learned this lesson from owning a boat)

Even if we did share the item, we would worry more about it than the person who borrowed it.

Post this to the bathroom mirror!

The power of money and possessions to take control in our lives is a strong and powerful force! We must be on our guard daily to “keep in control”

So, what do we do now?

Find someone else you trust, and agree with them to regularly hold each other accountable to help you both stay free from the controlling power of money and possessions.

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