Inheriting The Golden Touch

I will be honest, there have been times where I have wondered if there is something in my family's spiritual lineage that keeps us from ever having wealth. (Even as I write those words, I realize that they are laced with entitlement and discontentment but I want to proceed with this line of thinking because it might take me somewhere redemptive). I watch people around me who appear to have the "golden touch" as they invest and manage money effortlessly. They just seem to have the favor of God on their finances. In some of my lesser moments, I have wondered why I don't see that kind of favor in my life (again, I hear the discontentment oozing out of that statement as I write it) and have wondered if we Cowarts are just not meant to have the golden touch in this lifetime. But even as ungrateful as that thought is, God used it to shed a little light on my families spiritual heritage as I was reading this morning.

I have been reading a little book by Randy Alcorn called "The Treasure Principle" and as I was reading it made me think about my grandfather. In the book, Alcorn talks about the concept of sending it ahead where one gives money away (to the poor, to the church, etc.) in faith that you are actually storing away treasures in heaven. This is not a new thought to me but it came into a new light when I began to think of my grandfather M.A. Cowart or "PawPaw". Pawpaw has been dirt poor (by U.S. standards) for his entire life. He was forced to work in a C.C. camp as a teenager to help feed his family so he was never able to get more than a middleschool education. Throughout Pawpaw's life, he worked labor related jobs and worked very hard just to have the basic provisions for his family and himself (and often times, forced to choose in that order).

But here's the great irony of Pawpaw's life. He gave money away as if he were a millionaire. During the time of his funeral, I remember hearing story after story of people that he had bought groceries for or bailed out in a pinch when he barely had enough to take care of his own family and he would often do this by leaving envelopes in the foyer of his church with the person's name on it that he was helping so that he could remain anonymous. I also know that he was completely faithful when it came to giving to his church. During the last few weeks of Pawpaw's life he said on many different occasions, "I'm prayed up, I'm paid up, and ready to go!" and you knew by his life that he wasn't just talking "church talk".

As I think about Papaw's life, I realize that Papaw did have the "golden touch" when it comes to investments and money management. He just understood the value of investments that are long term (and by that I mean forever) and high yield verses investments that are short term with low yield. As I look at my grandfather's investing practices through an eternal value system, I realize that my Papaw was a genius when it came to finances. His diligent investments have paid off and now he will be able to enjoy the wealth that he has acquired forever. I hope that I can inherit even a fraction of his fiscal common sense and be one more Cowart that has the "golden touch".