Can money buy just a little bit of happiness?

My wife is an avid country music listener. And yet, somehow, I manage to stay married to her.

When we’re in the car and she’s listening to (and singing) country music, I’m normally fantasizing about finding the nearest cliff to drive off and end the pain I’m in. But then I remind myself it’s just for a little while and, besides, the Bible tells me to act: “With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love” (Eph. 4:2).

But then come the road trips.

We just got back from a weekender down in Gatlinburg, Tenn., which has approximately 173,824 country music stations — in fact, I don’t think they allow any other music to be played over standard radio. Remember, this is the home of “Dollywood.”

Anyway, on the drive back, I heard a country song that made me laugh and think about some theology at the same time. It’s by a guy named Chris Janson and starts like this:

I ain’t rich, but I **** sure wanna be
Working like a dog all day, ain’t working for me
I wish I had a rich uncle that’d kick the bucket
And that I was sitting on a pile like Warren Buffett
I know everybody says
Money can’t buy happiness

But it could buy me a boat
It could buy me a truck to pull it
It could buy me a Yeti 110 iced down with some silver bullets
Yeah, and I know what they say
Money can’t buy everything
Well, maybe so
But it could buy me a boat

Entitled (any wild guesses?) “Buy me a boat,” Chris gets a little theological in the next verse:

They call me redneck, white trash and blue collar
But I could change all that if I had a couple million dollars
I keep hearing that money is the root of all evil
And you can’t fit a camel through the eye of a needle
I’m sure that’s probably true
But it still sounds pretty cool

And it could buy him a boat.

Of course, we know that the love of money (not the money itself) is a root of all sorts of evil (1 Tim. 6:10) and that money rarely, if ever, changes character. But can’t money buy some happiness, just a little — and is it wrong to think that it can?

Prospering souls and happiness

On one extreme end of this debate, you have what are called “votary of poverty” folks who renounce money and personify the stand of the Proverbs writer: “Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven” (Prov. 23:4–5). On the other end of the spectrum, you have the prosperity preachers who misrepresent and wield a verse in 3rd John like a divine battle-axe: “Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers” (3 John 2).

But does that prospering soul have more happiness than someone who isn’t prospering financially? Some studies say yes.

A 2020 study, “Is wealth associated with depressive symptoms in the United States?” found: “Persons with low family savings had 1.49 times higher odds of having depressive symptoms than persons with high family savings, controlling for gender, age, race, education, marital status, family size, and family income. Predicted probabilities of depressive symptoms were higher for low family savings groups than high family savings groups at every income level.”

Other research identifies a few reasons for that, which include the reduced stress and pressure for meeting general life needs, more choices, freedom and opportunities, more easily dealing with financial surprises and setbacks, and affording meaningful life experiences that result in long-lasting positive memories.  

Hard to argue with that, wouldn’t you say?

Of course, as a Fast Company article rightly points out, there is an important difference in temporal happiness that comes from the “treasures on earth” as Jesus said (Matt. 6:19) and internal fulfilment: “Life satisfaction is different from happiness, which is less about how we feel generally about how lives and more about how we feel emotionally at any moment. And, interestingly, income may not have as much bearing on that at all. Money, it seems, can’t buy everything.”

The Bible calls that feeling of life satisfaction “contentment,” which is called out by Paul in two of his letters:

“But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content” (1 Tim. 6:6–8).

Food and clothing may sound pretty bare-bones to a lot of us, but have you seen the prices of groceries lately?

Paul also says: “For I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:11–13).

Through these verses and other places in Scripture you see the balance between loving and being fixated money (“Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income” - Ecc. 5:10) and enjoying the outcomes of work and other financial channels (“This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them — for this is their lot. Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil — this is a gift of God” - Ecc. 5:18-19).

Lastly, Paul tells us to never view money as our god or hope, but instead always aim our view upward: “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17).

So, in the end, the Preacher of Ecclesiastes and Paul tell us, yes, it’s OK to find some happiness in what money can provide. But we should always view such things as gifts from God, all of which can take many forms.

For example, like Chris Janson says, it could buy you a boat.