Wisdom Over Wealth

“Be Thou My Vision,” Stanza 4: 

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,

Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:

Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,

High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art. 

     Riches, wealth, comfort, luxury, the envy of others less fortunate. 

     Praise, fame, admiration, recognition, deferential treatment from those less influential. 

     Both material wealth and the fawning flattery of others can carry human beings to the pinnacles of prideful power in this world.  No wonder they have been the goal at any price of so many human beings throughout history. 

     And yet these very things are actually unreal:  mere mirages that lure their victims to disappointment and destruction.  We know this because God has told us so.  He has warned us at countless times and in many ways against pursuing them with greater fervor than that with which we pursue the holiness He requires of us in ever-deepening relationship with Him.  We need only look for His warnings given through His prophets, His written Word, His only begotten Son, and the inner admonitions of His Holy Spirit.

     We who are His people are under His strict orders to guard our own hearts against these seductions, to teach our children not to grasp for them, and to warn our fellow human beings against selling their souls to the Devil in order to obtain them. 

     Even the leaders of nations must be reminded of the critical difference between those things that are worth pursuing at any cost and those that only pretend to be – so that they will not be deceived into placing their confidence in the wealth, prominence, and power that attend their positions.  In fact, we see this in the centuries-old traditions of the British monarchy.  As he hands a Bible to the newly crowned King or Queen of England, the Moderator of the Church of Scotland utters the following profound truth:  “This Book [is] the most valuable thing that this world affords.  Here is Wisdom; this is the royal Law; these are the lively Oracles of God.”  [Preface to the English Standard Version Study Bible, pg. 19]

     This is the very lesson that Stanza 4 of “Be Thou My Vision” teaches us as a community of believing parents, educators, and students.  How blessed we are in the Wisdom contained in every line and stanza of our Paideia School Hymn, this wonderful prayer set to music!

     We BELIEVE Jesus when He commands us not to “store up for ourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.”  And we TRUST Him when He instructs us instead to “store up for ourselves treasures in Heaven” where nothing can tarnish or diminish them.  (Matthew 6:19-20)  It is for this reason that, in our classrooms, we strive to enable our students to understand the concept of “riches” as comprehending far more than mere financial gain or the acquisition of material goods.  We want them to see that there are spiritual, intellectual, and relational “goods” that far exceed money and earthly possessions as “riches” to be earned and cherished.

     In the same way, we LISTEN to Jesus when He warns us against “practicing our righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then we will have no reward from our Father who is in Heaven.”  (Matthew 6:1)  And we SHUDDER at the terrifying possibility that we might miss the greatest blessing of all – the salvation of our souls through confessing the Lordship of Jesus Christ – by making the fatal decision to “love human praise more than praise from God.”  (John 12:42-43)  For these reasons, we administer praise to our students judiciously:  to encourage them when they have completed an assignment well, accomplished some particularly difficult task, or gone out of their way to show Christian love to a classmate.  But we also strive to find a balance, so that we do not err in the other direction and inculcate in them the bad habit of completing a task for the sole motivation of receiving praise for doing so. 

     As we come to the close of our academic year and look forward to both the excitement and the restfulness of our summer vacations, may we continually remind ourselves that the values of Christ’s Kingdom are the reverse of the world’s, as they are so beautifully summed up in Stanza 4 of our School Hymn!