Regrets. Who hasn’t had them, especially if life lasts a long time and you tend to look back every now and again. There is one though, I don’t have. The trajectory of pursuing money. I was never on that track, nor did I want to be. It wasn’t in the cards, as someone said.

Years ago, I was watching television with a relative at their house. A commercial came on which showed a Mercedes-Benz being driven by a glamorous woman in front of a mansion. The family member looked at me.

“You and I will never have those things in our lifetime.”

I wasn’t bold enough then to say, “That’s not my goal, but yours.”

That same family member buys lottery tickets, still, to this day.

Of-course we gotta have money to pay bills, live life, and help others. But the good book says the “love” of money is the root of all evil. It doesn’t say money is evil. Big difference. Check it out in I Timothy 6:10.

Going back to regrets, I have a few. One involves a snare drum. I quit playing it after junior-high at Turrentine Middle School in Burlington, North Carolina. In high-school, I was more concerned with working a part-time job to make monthly payments for my used Fiat X1/9, so I could date.

After growing up and watching my oldest daughter play snare-drum for seven years, I’ve sometimes asked, “What if I had played in Walter M. Williams’s high school marching band? Where would the music have taken me?”

I love music, singing, and listening to it. In our twenty-five years of marriage, my wife and I have attended numerous concerts from Kenny G to Amy Grant, from Michael W. Smith to Michael Buble.

And those same artists have recorded their version of Christmas music. There is one song that seems to stand out when I turn on my car radio during the holidays, “The Little Drummer Boy.”

It’s been recorded by countless artists like Bing Crosby, Carrie Underwood, and the pop-duo For King and Country.

The Little Drummer Boy is believed to have been originally written by Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. The lyrics tell the story of a poor boy who was summoned by the Magi (or The Three Kings) to the nativity of baby Jesus.

But there was a dilemma. The Three Kings were financially able to bring elaborate gifts to baby Jesus, but not the poor boy. The men from royalty brought gold, (money) frankincense, (an aromatic resin used in perfumes) and myrrh (a sap like substance used in medicine).

The little boy had nothing to bring materially. However, he did have his talent. And man, could he play a mean drum, and that he did in front of the King of Kings.

It’s interesting many churches stress the importance of giving 10% (money) to God and nothing else. Who isn’t tired of the commercial slogan, “What’s in your wallet?”

I believe God wants our heart which includes three things that are way more important than frankincense and myrrh. Some people call them “The Three T’s,” Time, Talent, and Treasure.

If you have time to watch Netflix, then you have time to give to the King of Kings. If you enjoy doing a particular hobby, then you have a talent you can use for God’s glory. And if you are tighter financially than Ebenezer Scrooge was in A Christmas Carol, it’s foolish to wait for a midnight ghost to loosen your grip on stocks and bonds.

Didn’t God use 2020 to wake us up? What is “your” drum?   

pictures courtesy of pexels.com

You have to wait until the end of For King & Country’s music video to find out where the journey ended for the little drummer boy.