$ clip

During the era of '80s excess, a trend in men's accessories was the infamous money clip.  Oftentimes it was fabricated from heavy gauge sheet metal.  The ones I remember were brass or stainless steel.  Money clips were an unnecessary, ostentatious way to carry cash around in your pants pocket in lieu of keeping it (or all of it) in your wallet.  From there, at a point of purchase, you'd be given the opportunity to remove your money clip from your pocket, displaying those folded greenbacks to whomever was there to see, prior to paying up.

Money clips didn't function without a fairly thick wad of cash on hand.  It wasn't like you could only clip one single bill in place.  Typically, the design of the clip was such that it was really only suitable for 3/8" to 1/4" of folded currency.

Within the 2019 world we live in, we as men are no less considered worthwhile or valued by how much cash we have on hand at any given moment.  Hence, so many guys pursue monetary wealth with a vengeance, doing anything they can to earn as much as quickly as possible.  From there, they fall in line with our western culture which demands that we use a large quantity of that wealth - not to give, but to consume for ourselves as if the supply of cash will surely never run out!

Our entertainment - Internet, TV is financially underwritten by the advertisement industry.  The majority of those ads are designed to coerce us to believe in the ridiculousness that I've described above.

It's an endless loop of easy to swallow lies if you bookmark it up against Scripture, therefore it is a hugely successful distraction to men everywhere.  But especially to men who are looking to follow Christ.

So...

Keeping that money clip well stocked takes a lot of work.  Work that's futile and oftentimes reprehensible in God's eyes because it's stealing precious, finite energy away from sanctification.  Sanctification is the process that God takes men through to become more like Christ, and never, under any circumstance, has this process been achieved overnight.

Christian men should be concerned about their biggest problem:  sin, if they're being sanctified.

No, you won't receive a sin statement in the US mail each month as you do for the earnings you've received within your bank account.  In fact, you don't need one.  You're smart enough to know where you're compromising and how long it's been going on.  And of course, God knows too.

Jesus said, "Sell everything and give to the poor.  Then follow me."

In other words, prioritize your soul over everything else, prior to allowing the faith imbued within you to point the way forward.  That's the truth relative to what this life is all about.