By Rubel Shelly

Researchers at Harvard Business School and the University of
British Columbiaare challenging the old, shop-worn thesis that money
can't buy happiness. At least, they are challenging us to think about
how we use money and how its use for unselfish reasons relates to
one's personal happiness.

There is certainly nothing appealing or spiritual about poverty. Both
the Bible and common sense say that poverty tempts one not only to
envy but to stealing and violence. So there is a considerable body of
research that says people become happier as they move from being
very poor to lower middle class. All of us are more content with a life
that has basic needs met, lets us feed and educate our children, and
be free of constant worry over clothes and shelter.

That same body of research says that the impact on happiness is
marginal to imaginary when people get above the poverty line. A whopping
raise for the person making $45,000 to $100,000 won't make her healthy,
make his siblings any easier to live with, or fix their marriage. Increments
of monetary increase in this range are, in fact, the ones that frequently
come laden with stress.

It is here that we encounter one of the great paradoxes of modern life:
the people who spend so much of their time in the pursuit of more and
more money seem to experience dramatically diminishing returns in
personal fulfillment and joy with life. This is surely why we say money
doesn't buy happiness.

But now let's go back to the work of those researchers I mentioned
earlier. As published in the March 21, 2008, issue of Science, their
findings support the claim that money does buy happiness when it is
spent on someone else.

"Our findings suggest that very minor alterations in spending allocations - as
little as $5 in our final study - may be sufficient to produce non-trivial gains
in happiness on a given day," said Dr. Michael Norton. In other words, it isn't
having more money that makes people happier so much as how they choose
to spend their money. Spending on gifts to friends, educating young people,
or sending kids to summer camp produces greater happiness for someone
than, say, buying a flat-screen TV or a computer with more bells and whistles.

But didn't we already know that? It isn't money but the love of money that
the Bible condemns so emphatically. There is no sin in working hard to
provide for oneself, but greed and selfishness are sins of the greatest magnitude.

If you'd like to buy some happiness, put your money on another's need.

(c) 2008 Rubel Shelly. Used by permission. From Rubel Shelly's
"FAX of Life" printed each Tuesday.

Rubel Shelly has preached for the Woodmont Hills Church of
Christ in Nashville since 1978. During that time, he has also
taught at David Lipscomb University and Vanderbilt University
School of Medicine. He is the author of more than 20 books,
including several which have been translated into languages
such as Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian, French, and
Russian.