“Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.” Proverbs 23:4-5 (NIV)

In the summer of 2018, I woke up from a nap suddenly after the realization $40K worth of debt crushed me. I felt so heavy.

In 2019, I delivered pizzas as a side hustle to attack my debt. Today, I’m 100% debt free. I made my final debt payment in March 2021. But in 2019, I slung pizzas to takedown my $40K debt. I made a special playlist to blast while driving. One of the songs in rotation was “Foe tha Love of $” by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. A line repeats throughout: “gotta make that money, man…” That was my mantra during that time. I wasn’t trying to get rich. I just wanted financial freedom.

I quit slinging pizzas in 2020, but still pushed my way through to debt freedom in March 2021. For the first time in my adult life, I had that thing called margin. I didn’t have anxiety about my bank account or bills. Today, I still have margin and peace has settled over the financial area of my life.

For the past six months or so, I’ve worked overtime at my job. When those overtime checks started hitting my bank account, I almost didn’t know what to do with myself. Key word: almost. Having so much debt in the past, I learned from my money mistakes and made specific plans and goals for the extra income. Every dollar didn’t go to someone else’s pockets. I’ve saved more, given more, and done some things I simply just wanted to do.

But all the overtime came at a cost. It meant losing sleep and time with my daughter. It meant exhaustion and irritability the next day. It meant not eating as healthy or doing my daily walk. One time an incident occurred right after an OT shift where someone lied and implicated me, and I feared potential job loss.

Was I wearing myself out to get rich? Maybe. I definitely was wearing myself out. I decided at the end of December 2022 I would no longer work overtime. I had faith God would open up other doors that wouldn’t cost me my health or time with my family.

See, there’s nothing wrong with wanting money. Money makes living this life easier. Having money enables me to get the things I need and want. The love of money causes problems (1 Tim. 6-10). When we make everything about money and getting rich, we lose sight of the really important things. We sacrifice our health, our families, our core morals and values for a fleeting piece of green, especially if we’re not stewarding the money properly.

Throughout Scripture, many people received wealth and prosperity. Some folks try to vilify those with wealth, but Solomon said elsewhere that God blesses some with wealth and the ability to enjoy it (Ecc. 5:18-20). Plenty of other references abound about greed and ill-gotten gains, which serve as warnings about checking our earning motives.

Today, I don’t chase money to pay off debt or focus on getting rich. I focus on good stewardship of what I receive and leaving a foundation for the next generation to build upon. I want to break the generational curses of poverty and lack. One day I’ll achieve wealth status, but not for the sake of having wealth. I pray it will serve as a tool for my daughter and future generations to achieve their goals and bless others.

I won’t watch my riches fly away since they’ll funnel to the right people and places. Another Proverb says that a good person leaves an inheritance to their children’s children. True wealth involves the long-game where the fullness never materializes in my lifetime.

Are you wearing yourself out to get rich? If so, why?

EKG