Money and St. Patrick

For this week’s Crossroads Conversation, I decided to spend a moment away from The Financial Crossroads, in honor of St. Patrick and this week’s celebration of Ireland’s Patron Saint. But lest ye think St. Patty has nothing to teach us about money and its optimal management, I invite ye to think again (can you hear the Irish brogue?)…

Thomas Cahill does an excellent job in his bestselling book, How the Irish Saved Civilization, painting a picture of the venerable Patrick:

"Patrick was a hard-bitten man who did not find his life’s purpose till his life was half over. He had a temper that could flare dangerously when he perceived an injustice—not against himself but against another, particularly against someone defenseless. But he had the cheerfulness and good humor that humble people often have. He enjoyed this world and its variety of human beings—and he didn’t take himself too seriously. He was, in spirit, an Irishman."

Consider the following thoughts on both money and life that St. Patrick and the Emerald Isle invoke in me:

• The least expensive stuff in life can often be the most valuable. Patrick most certainly did have an impact on Ireland, effectively converting the whole of it to Christianity, but the Celtic traditions also had an impact on him. Both Celtic pagan and Christian traditions involve a deep sense of reverence for life in this world—human, of course, but also animals and especially nature. (Hold on, I’m getting to the money part…) When we go through financial trials, we often feel a sense of deprivation, from which springs bitterness and envy. These hollow feelings can bury us and strip away the joy of life, but if in those moments we can turn our attention to that for which we are not asked to pay a dime—a meaningful discussion with a loved one, a long walk or hike in a scenic area in solitude, the simple appreciation of a sunrise or sunset—we may be reminded that so much of what is already ours or offered to us is priceless…and free.

• Cahill tells us that Patrick didn’t “find his life’s purpose till his life was half over.” Money plays a role in just about everything we do in life. The primary source of our personal money creation is our job, our career. Therefore an understandable, but unfortunate, conclusion we often make (consciously and subconsciously) is that the purpose of our careers is simply… to make money. This is a poor purpose for the thing that consumes the majority of our waking hours. If the primary purpose of your career is just to make money, you may very well achieve that purpose… and little more. Instead, find a purpose. Create a story that builds meaning into your life and the lives of others, and when you find yourself impelled by genuine purpose instead of compelled by the scramble for cash, the beauty is that you’re likely to have more of the green stuff than you’d expected. As Jim Stovall, my friend and co-author, put it in The Financial Crossroads, “If you stop worrying about money and concern yourself instead with creating value in the lives of those around you, you will have more money than you need.” For more on “writing a better story” in your life and career, look into Donald Miller’s book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.