For a moment, forget the political puzzle of getting money back
when the country is nine trillion dollars in debt. The more immediate
question is: How will you make much of Christ with your "economic
stimulus payment"? The president says it will be in the mail in time
for Cinco de Mayo.

Clue: Nobody in the world will see you spend your money on yourself
and conclude that Christ is your treasure. They will assume you are
just like them, no matter how loudly you thank God for this boon. That
doesn’t mean you shouldn’t spend it on yourself (the way we do with
most of what we earn). Not everything we do can look different from the
world—eat, pay utilities, fill up the car, wear clothes (even
thrift-store clothes). And yes, we hope (somehow) that spending on
ourselves in some way contributes to our being more Christ-exalting
people.

But do we really need this money? Very few do. We would have gotten
on fine without it. If we didn’t know it was coming, we wouldn’t even
be feeling the desires we are feeling right now.

May I encourage you to be radically creative and hedonistic. Jesus
said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). And
those crazy Macedonians in a “severe test of affliction” and in
“extreme poverty” had an “abundance of joy” that overflowed in a
“wealth of generosity.” They even begged Paul “for the favor of taking
part in the relief of the saints” (2 Corinthians 8:2-4). They really
believed what Jesus said. Really.

Before the check comes dream of some person or ministry which might
make much of Christ because you treasured him above your next home
project.

The reason God created money and enabled us to earn it is so that we
could show by the way we use it that money is not our treasure, Christ
is. That’s why the checks are coming. So we can make Christ look great.

“Be content with what you have, for he has said,
‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5-6).