Getting to Know Lady Wisdom (Prayer Devotional for the week of May 20, 2012)

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I don’t wear a lot of jewelry, and most of what I do wear has a story behind it: it may be an heirloom, a gift or a handmade design from my kids. One of the pieces I’m wearing today, for instance, is a Möbius ring. I got it about a year after I began my doctoral studies, and I wear it almost daily.

A Möbius Strip is a band with a twist in it – so that if you trace one side, it keeps looping around inside & out and never ends. The ring is engraved with the words: “Nothing is impossible” that reminds me of some of my favorite verses, Mark 10:27/Matthew 19:26 and Philippians 4:13. In one regard, the ring encourages me to press on with my studies and not give up when assignments (and professors!) are difficult. Deep down, though, that statement means so much more … there are plenty of areas in each of our lives where we need to pursue knowledge, gain wisdom and seek understanding about what the ultimate teacher, God, has in store for us.

We are starting a new sermon series today on the book of Proverbs, and the first chapter focuses on relentlessly seeking wisdom by leaning on God. I love how The Message paraphrase refers to Lady Wisdom and Knowledge (with a capital “K”), as if they were people we could get to know. I think that sometimes it’s too easy to distance ourselves and start thinking of God in the third person – as if he’s off in the cosmos somewhere, haphazardly checking in on us poor Earthlings now and then. Instead, we ought to seek him intimately and etch his words on our hearts (Hebrews 8:10). This week, let’s focus on getting acquainted with our new friends, Wisdom and Knowledge.

What Am I Worth?

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Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock this week, with no Internet connection and only the sound of crickets to keep you company, you’ve probably heard a little news story about Facebook going public today. After the company’s opening trade on the NASDAQ this morning, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is said to be worth upwards of $20 billion (<<that’s a “B”).

Let’s see … once you subtract my student loans, the mortgage and one car note from my “assets” (we’ll throw in life insurance & retirement savings, for good measure), then hopefully my net worth is slightly higher than zero.

It makes me uncomfortable to hear all the talk about how much Zuckerberg is “worth.” I don’t know the guy, personally, so this is just my very distanced impression of him, but he seems pretty down-to-earth. From what I understand, he’s dated the same gal for years, so he doesn’t strike me as a ladies’ man. He goes against the grain of traditional office attire (something I don’t have the guts to do, since unlike him, I’m not the CEO). He seems like a typical Gen-Y young adult.

Sure, he’s filthy rich … he was even before this morning’s IPO … but is that what he’s worth?

Although it sounds appealing to be independently wealthy and not have a financial care in the world, I don’t think I would like the attention that comes with it. I don’t ever want to be defined in dollar terms. My self-worth is defined by far more than how much (or how little) money is in my checking, savings and retirement accounts. And, as much as I want my kids to grow up and have successful careers, it is more important to me that they find a meaningful life passion. Teaching, ministry and many other careers have invaluable “worth” that goes far beyond dollars.

Wednesday Words: Pension Protection Act of 2006

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… Sounds riveting, doesn’t it? It’s pretty fascinating to me, actually, but you already know that I’m a nerd. 🙂 I’m reading some interesting material about the various factors that come into play when formulating public policy for my summer courses, but I’ve also been busy reading/researching at work.

In addition to many other sections pertaining to corporations and whatnot, the Pension Protection Act of 2006 outlined some specific boundaries and criteria concerning donors and nonprofit organizations. Private foundations have come under a lot of scrutiny in recent years for misusing charitable dollars — whether for private use (“inurement” or “self-dealing”) or making so-called donations that offer kick-backs or other perks (“non-incidental benefits”) to the donor.

This is an especially important issue when an organization, such as a college or university, raises funds for athletics, the arts and other areas where ticketed events take place. Let’s say that a donor wants to buy a table at a fundraising dinner for her favorite charity. For the sake of illustration, let’s say that it only costs $100. The actual food cost of the dinner is $30, and the rest goes to the charity. Guidelines from the PPA of 2006 mandate that the donor cannot pay the $30 out-of-pocket and the other $70 from her family foundation. This  is called bifurcating, or cost-splitting.

Furthermore, that same donor cannot use her family foundation to buy the table and then attend the event … or even give the tickets to her family, friends or neighbors. This is considered self-dealing and is frowned upon by the IRS. The foundation may buy the table and give the seats back to the host charity, to disburse as they choose, and the foundation may receive recognition for their contribution, but they can’t actually attend the event.

It can get pretty sticky, as you can tell. The sad thing is that I don’t think a lot of donors, and even foundations, are aware of some of these stipulations. Many wealthy families create private foundations as a conduit for their philanthropic interests, and unless they have savvy financial advisors who are in the know concerning these issues, then they may find themselves in a pickle.