Getting Ahead

Katikamu Catholic Parish, Uganda
Tommy Grimm

The other day, I had a conversation with a Ugandan friend about how difficult it is to “get ahead” here. She has a stable job, for which she’s thankful, but would like to return to school to become more proficient with computers so that she can find work that pays more. But school is expensive, and the culture here isn’t conducive to saving money. She told me about how she tries to put a little money away each month, but there’s always one person or another coming to her with pressing needs, begging for money for a child’s lunch at school, for medical bills, for a family member’s burial fees, or for a host of other needs, mundane and extraordinary. She said that time and again her heart is moved, and she gives away what little she has saved up. I remember reading in the book Africans and Money Matters that because resources are so limited in Africa (in general), there’s a high social value on sharing what one has. Anyone who abstains from this practice is ostracized from the community.

As I listened to my friend, I thought of Jesus’ parable in Luke of the rich fool (Lk 12:13-21). Jesus warns the crowd to “take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (v. 15). He then tells a story about a man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. Faced with a significant surplus, the man decided to build larger barns to house his financial boon. The man believed this would provide for a leisurely retirement, or at least an extended vacation. However, that very evening, the man dies and “[his] soul is required of [him]” (v. 20).

I’ve often wondered what it would look like to live according to this parable. Saving a nest egg and accounting for the inevitable rainy day is part of our financial mantra in the West. If someone doesn’t comply with our system, choosing not to pay for insurance or save for retirement, we resent having to pay for their poor planning. The goal is to achieve financial independence. Jesus, on the other hand, seems to advocate a community of financial interdependence through generous giving, in which members trust in their Father to provide for them—which often comes through the gifts of others, just as God had provided for the needs of countless others through this Ugandan woman I was talking to. It might keep her from getting ahead in financial standing, but it might also be providing her with “moneybags that do not grow old—with a treasure in the heavens” (Lk 12:33).