present us with a unique spiritual challenge: that we distinguish moral values from money-and recognize that, in and of itself, money is neutral in nature. Whether money is "good" or "bad" depends on the purpose for which the user is engaging it.

To see how great that challenge is, one need look no further than the Bible. In Matthew 19, verses 23-24, Jesus cautions, "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven," and then he immediately stresses, "And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."

Reading these verses for the first time as an adult, having acquired precious little maturity by then, I was terribly disheartened. "A camel through the eye of a needle! How could that be possible?" I asked myself dejectedly. As I read on, however, I saw that Jesus promptly assured his disciples, who were astonished by His words as I was ". . . but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26). This last phrase in is the key to Jesus' teaching here. His disciples and I were dwelling on the letter, not the spirit, of the law. Jesus was talking about what happens when you focus on temporal wealth rather than on treasure in Heaven.

Later, in John 3:16, I read, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (italics mine). I realized then that I would not be excluded from the kingdom of God purely on the basis of my inherited wealth but in fact included on the basis of my faith. Yet how could I make sense of Jesus' extreme caution in the earlier passage? My spiritual challenge began with the resolve to learn where those startling words in Matthew could lead me. How on earth could I become the person God intended despite the financial wealth bestowed on me?

Like most inheritors, I have been presented with an unusual opportunity in life. On the one hand, I have the financial ease to apply myself to being receptive to God's will for me, to act in the ways God directs me. On the other hand, I also have the financial ease to be very self-indulgent. God gives me a lot of choices. By making the

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