Ends.

Turn my heart towards your precepts

  and away from the pursuit of wealth.    ----Psalm 118

This passage has stuck with me over the past few days since it appeared in the Liturgy of the Hours (Morning Prayer from last Saturday).  

You only have to turn "towards Your precepts" and "away from the pursuit of wealth" when those things are at odds, right?  When the pursuit of wealth means stealing, or cheating, or perhaps something less glaring, something like working too hard and neglecting your other duties?

Maybe not.

  "Precepts" have to do with upright living, with doing God's will, with avoiding wrong and seeking the right.  It has to do with how you live, with the choices you make.   The psalmist is asking:  Make right behavior, doing Your will, my main goal... whatever the outcome.

"Wealth," on the other hand, is an outcome-based measure.  

We all know that "good" behavior is no guarantee of "good" results.   We don't get what we deserve; some folks are born with all the advantages, others struggle and never get ahead despite doing everything right.   You'd  think we'd remember that.  And yet it's so easy to measure our success by what we've managed to achieve or amass, and so hard to remember to measure ourselves by how we set about getting it.Especially if you define "wealth" broadly, to mean any kind of visible success or asset, the kind of stuff you can participate in getting by your own merits -- but you can also win or lose by chance alone. 

Turn my heart towards your precepts

  and away from the pursuit of ... 

Money, sure.  Or a comfortable, clean, organized home.  Or... good health.   Physical fitness.  Pleasant, well-behaved children.  A spouse who loves you.  A job you enjoy.

All these things are good and worth seeking; but none last longer than life.  The psalmist reminds us that they're not the point.  They aren't the reason we are to love God's precepts, they aren't our measure of whether we're doing "the right things."  We are to follow His precepts even if it seems they will not get us these things.  They're not, in fact, virtues.  They are kinds of wealth.  Material goods.  Things that will not last.

(Yes, even "health" is a material good.  These days it almost seems as if good health qualifies as an end in itself and as a proof of virtue.  Makes no more sense than assuming that the rich get to be rich because they are virtuous, or that they enjoy God's special favors.)

It's tempting to cut corners to achieve the visible results we wish our virtue would get us.  But we have to be focused not on the outcome -- which might be from luck, or forces beyond our control -- but on our own behaviors, our own choices.  Because in the moment, our own behavior is always subject to at least some conscious control, and however much choice we have, we are responsible for.

"Health" has been the kind of wealth I have been after for the last couple of years, and it's sobering to be reminded that it isn't the be-all, end-all, the goal that excuses anything.