Contemplative Bible Reading

Proverbs 13:8 (New Living Translation)

The rich can pay a ransom for their lives,
but the poor won’t even get threatened.

Hmm, poor people aren’t threatened. That makes sense as if you have nothing, you have nothing to lose. The rich, however, have lots to lose. They have so much that others will grab them and ask a ransom for their life.

Should be live such that I save nothing? Should I squander everything so that I am poor? Should I have sat on the couch my whole life so that I would never have earned any money?

Maybe the answers to the above are all, “no.” Let’s look at Proverbs 13:7:

Some who are poor pretend to be rich;
others who are rich pretend to be poor.

Perhaps I should pretend to be much poorer than I am.

Perhaps all this thought about being rich or poor or acting rich or poor is all wrong.