HERE'S HOW MUCH MONEY WOULD MAKE EALING EVEN HAPPIER.

Ever since the Panama Papers news story, I've been thinking a lot about money. Then I read this, in the Financial Times of all places.

A couple of weeks ago the top 'reader's question' in the Management section was essentially:

My partner and I have similar jobs at the same organisation. He just got a 20% pay rise. Should I force him to pay 20% more than I do towards rent and other expenses? What do you think?

The answer to this relationship issue is obvious to me.

Forget about the money.

Surely a relationship is priceless.

I love my job.
But if my employer didn't pay me, I wouldn't turn up to work.
I don't get paid to be a husband and a daddy, but I still turn up anyway.

Dear Financial Times reader: I assume you love your partner. Why not try being generous to them with your money?

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Money has a way of appearing incredibly important.

We've been sold the idea that more money will make us happier, in spite of celebrities' ludicrous lifestyles that publicly fall apart on the pages of every newspaper.

For example, it's easy to judge wealthy people who can afford to avoid tax, but I can guarantee you two things:

1. If you or I were in the same situation, we'd do exactly the same thing. Don't even pretend that you wouldn't. When the Government announces an increase in a tax-free allowance, I don't tell them to keep my money anyway. Tax avoidance is legal, and should be expected. (As opposed to tax evasion.)
2. If a wealthy person is happy, it's not down to their wealth. They'll be happy because of the relationships in their life, or experiences they're having.

So...

QUESTION: How much money do I need to be happy?
ANSWER: Just a little bit more.

I implore you, don't stake your happiness on the amount you earn or your bank balance.

Instead, please look at all the evidence and realise that you'll be happier if you're more generous, regardless of how wealthy you are.

Here's the really good news...

Every Sunday we have an opportunity to get happier by giving away our money - Redeemer will use it to transform Ealing and support others around London and around the world!

There's only one question left:

How happy do you actually want to be?

HOW MY LOVE FOR ARSENAL HAS COST ME

I have been a fan of the greatest North London team since my older brother informed me at primary school that ‘they are our team’.

I'm talking about Arsenal.

As a child, I wanted to wear the kit, had posters all round my room of the players and loved anything with their badge attached. Pencil case, rubber and ruler all became more valuable if painted red and white.

I have been faithful to the Gunners throughout the years...

• Drinking tea out of an Arsenal mug as a student
• Wearing the scarf on playground duty when a primary school teacher
• Instructing my kids ‘they are our team’
• Even preaching about the club at church - they are the only team mentioned in the Bible (Jeremiah 50:25)

Despite all this I still struggle this season…

I thought after the FA Cup final last year, and the sudden drop of form of Manchester United and Chelsea, that this would be our year!

Yet here I am at the beginning of May, still hopeful that we can make fourth place in the Premier League to scrape into European football again next season.

This faithfulness to Arsenal costs me - in time, emotion and money.

What are you faithful to, and what is it costing you?

I encouraged us in a sermon recently that Christians should pray, serve and give. So let me make that challenge again.

Will you pray?

Will you serve?

Will you give?

THE EALING HALF MARATHON OF GENEROSITY BEGINS NOW!

In my job I have the joy of getting to know many radically generous Christians.

I work for a charity, and this last weekend was busy as I met with a number of our wealthier supporters. At the end of one meeting I commented to the couple opposite that everyone I'd met there had one thing in common:

They all started to give when their means were modest.

Not all from their first pay cheque, but nearly all from their first job. 

First jobs, just married, starter homes, and growing families. All of these are good distractions to a generous life when you are early in your career.

Then there are all the experiences and opportunities on our doorstep in Ealing. I love the food, the shows, the endless places that will hoover up money when you thought you were going out for one drink.

But...giving is a choice hard-won - a muscle that needs to be exercised.

I think some have a rosy picture of life, assuming that they will naturally become generous as they accumulate wealth...

This is not the case!

Jesus talks a lot about money.

If you're reading the New Testament for the first time, you'll have noticed this. He tells stories about the über-rich...and the terribly poor.

When I read Jesus' story of the widow who gave sacrificially out of virtually nothing, we see it's not about the row of zeroes on the cheque, but the attitude of the heart.

When I read of the three servants who were trusted with unequal funds (Matthew 25:14) - the master judged all equally on his return. The one who was given little and didn't invest wisely as the others did was rebuked by the master. 

Perhaps most challenging though, are the words that introduce the above parable:

Where your treasure is, your heart is also.

Are we choosing to put the extra each month towards something that's going to fade away, or could we invest in God's plan for a broken world and give our money to the church, a charity, or someone we know who is really struggling?

You may have a little or a lot of money.

That doesn't matter.

God asks all his children to be generous - generous today - and he promises to entrust much to those who are faithful with little.

Don't be fooled to think that generosity is something easy to be acquired when life is more comfortable.

I am not running the Ealing Half Marathon.

I know some in Redeemer are, but even if I woke up that morning in September with the desire to do so, my muscles wouldn't let me.

It wouldn't be a pretty sight as my legs seized up and failed me!

If I wanted to run the Ealing Half, I'd need to start my training a little at a time, and start today.

How's your generosity training going?