The Bucket With No Bottom

In 2014, a financial planner named David Chen sat across from a couple in Portland, Oregon, who earned a combined $190,000 a year. They had two new cars, a renovated kitchen, and a timeshare in Cabo. Yet they had called his office in a panic because they couldn't explain where their money went. Every month, the account drained to zero. David spent three hours combing through their statements. What he found wasn't one catastrophic expense — it was a thousand small leaks. Subscriptions they forgot they had. Meals that blurred together. Upgrades to things that didn't need upgrading. They had spent lavishly on themselves and had nothing to show for it.

When the prophet Haggai delivered the word of the Almighty to the returned exiles in Jerusalem, he described something eerily similar. "You have planted much, but harvested little," God declared. "You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it." The people had been back from Babylon for sixteen years. They had rebuilt their own paneled houses. But the temple of the Lord still lay in ruins, and a strange emptiness had settled over everything they touched. More was never enough.

Haggai's message wasn't about budgeting — it was about orientation. When we pour everything into our own comfort while the purposes of God sit neglected, we shouldn't be surprised when satisfaction leaks out as fast as we pour it in. The Almighty invites us to build what lasts.