We are going to call one of the main characters from this
story Uncle Milton. We chose that name
because the image we are using is the one my beautiful child-bride Suzanne drew
to represent Milton Friedman in our Redneck MBA videos.
Milton Friedman was a leading economist in the United States
of America and won a Nobel Prize in economics. His theories were used
throughout much of the last half of the twentieth century and have influenced
our economy today.
Let’s pretend that Uncle Milton is your favorite uncle. You love him with all your heart and you
trust him completely. To the best of
your knowledge, he has never lied to you.
Uncle Milton has more money than you could begin to imagine and, as far
as you know, is always right.
One day, Uncle Milton calls you and asks you to stop by his
house. When you arrive, his
When you arrive, Uncle Milton is on the phone with a senator
discussing economics. He motions for you
to take a seat near his desk and finishes his phone call. As he hangs up, he
says to you, “I suppose you are wondering why I called you here.”
You agree that you are curious. Then, he tells you. He hands you a cashier’s check made payable
to you for fifty dollars ($50). He tells
you that it is yours to spend any way you choose. He then says he would like for you to cash
the check at his bank and get ten five dollar bills. He then tells you that before you spend any
of the money you are to bring him the first five dollar bill out of it.
You think this is odd, but you know that Uncle Milton has a
reason for what he does. He does not do
things just to pull your strings and you know he has your best interest in
mind.
You go straight to the bank and do exactly like he
said. You ask the teller to make sure he
gives you one very new, very crisp, very clean five-dollar bill. He looks through his till and finds you the
cleanest, newest, crispest five dollar bill in his till and counts that one out
to you first.
You take that bill and put it in a separate envelope and hot
foot it back to Uncle Milton’s house.
You go into his office and he smiles at you and puts the envelope in his
desk drawer.
Next week, he calls you and you go through the same exact
thing again. This goes on for the better
part of the year. Uncle Milton gives you
a certified check for fifty dollars and you bring him back five of it and you
get to keep $45 of it to spend however you choose.
After six months, he calls you and this time he hands you a
check for $500. He tells you to get it
cashed in fifty dollar bills ($50) and that you are to bring him the first
fifty dollars back.
You go to the bank and go to the same teller you have been
using for all these transactions. He
looks at the check and smiles. He asks
you if you know why Uncle Milton doesn’t just go ahead and get his part of the
money when he comes in to get the cashier’s check.
You have to admit this is odd, but you figure that a smart
man like Uncle Milton has his reasons.
You ask the clerk for all the money in fifty-dollar bills and ask him to
make sure that at least one of them is crisp, clean, and new.
You head back to Uncle Milton’s house and go to his
office. Again, he takes the envelope
with the $50 bill in it and puts it in the drawer where he has put all the
envelopes you have brought him in the past.
It never crosses your mind to not bring the money back to
Uncle Milton. After all, it is ALL his
money in the first place. He has plenty
of money of his own and would not miss any of it. But you know that Uncle Milton has something
in mind and you obey his instructions implicitly.
Time goes by. Each
week Uncle Milton calls you and each time he gives you a cashier’s check for an
ever-growing amount and each time you are instructed to bring back the first
ten percent in the form of the crispest, newest bill or bills you can find.
It soon reaches the stage where he hands you a cashier’s
check for five hundred thousand dollars. You think to yourself, “Wow that is a
lot of money”. All while you are driving
to the bank, you think, “I really can’t afford to give Uncle Milton back fifty
thousand dollars. Maybe he won’t miss it
if I don’t give him all the money. He
just sticks it in his drawer without counting it anyway. You decide the right thing to do is to give
him the ten percent he asks for back to him.
After all, it is ALL his money anyway.
The money you get to keep is a gift.
Every week he calls and every week you bring him back his
ten percent. One day when you go in,
Uncle Milton tells you he wants to show you something. He takes you to the back of his house and the
two of you climb on a golf cart.
He drives you across
his vast estate that has orchards, vineyards, fields of fruits and vegetables
of all types. He turns down a road on
his estate that has mansion after mansion.
Some are completely built and some are under construction.
In some places there are vacant lots. There are stakes
marking their boundaries but nothing else.
Some are huge and ornate and some are nice and large but not
as ornate or large as the others.
He pulls up to a beautiful mansion and reaches in his pocket
and pulls out a key. He tells you that
this key is the key to your new mansion.
You notice that some of the houses on your block are still under
construction and look like construction has just stopped or has slowed to a
crawl.
He tells you that those mansions are for some of your
cousins. He has been doing the same thing
with them each week. Each week, he gives
them a cashier's check. Each week, they
bring back some of the money.
Some bring back more than the ten percent he asked for. The houses that are larger and more ornate
belong to them.
The vacant lots are where the houses of the cousins who did
not bring back any of the money would have been built but, since they did not
bring back any of the money, nothing was built.
He explains that those houses that are not complete belong
to the cousins who only brought back part of the money they were supposed to.
He says, “You see, I didn’t need the money I gave you to do
what I intended to do. It was all a
test. Each week when you brought back
the ten percent, I had the builders add a little more to your mansion. For
those who gave more than their ten percent, I added more to the mansion. For those who brought back less, I only built
a little more to their house."
"It was about more than building houses. It was about building the person I wanted you
to be. I never needed that money to do
my work. I needed that money to help you
to grow."
And that is how it is with God. HE does not need our money to do His work. He
uses the money we bring to the storehouse, our local church, to help us to grow
spiritually
When we tithe our full ten percent, we are showing the
stewardship that God is trying to build in us.
Please be advised that all the
information in this course is provided to educate, enlighten, and broaden your
views in life. The information provided
is not a substitute for medical, legal, dietary, financial/accounting, or
religious professionals. Always consult
a professional before you act on any of the information you find in this
course.
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