27 Jul Can’t buy me love
28 July 2026
Most of us who lived through the 1960s remember the unbelievably famous & incredibly popular band the Beatles. I was never a fan. Their music is really pretty bland compared to other bands of that era, their politics were wacky & it’s obvious some of their songs were written under the influence of mind-bending substances. But boy did they seem to define a global shift in music! And at least one of their songs was spot on: Can’t buy me love. The song repeats what we know to be true, “money can’t buy me love.”
It seems money can’t buy happiness either, or what we might better call “satisfaction” or “contentment.” While that seems obvious, a team of researchers (led by a William Von Hippel) studied that & proved the point. In one of those studies I don’t know who paid for or thought it would be cool to discover, Von Hippel’s team studied two large groups of people: wealthy and poor. In essence people who lived far above the poverty line & those who lived near it. If you owned your own home, had steady income that was above your debt load or were paying your bills consistently, you were not “poor.” Seems pretty straightforward.
They measured three factors: wealth vs poverty, worship attendance vs non-attending, and “happiness” “satisfaction” or “contentment in life.” While the big factor was relative wealth/poverty, the worship attendance showed something the researchers did not expect. Both wealthy & poor people who attend worship regularly reported being “very happy/satisfied” in life about twice as much as those who did not worship at all. At both extremes of financial success, worshippers (regular worshippers = at least once per month) were about twice as likely to feel happy/content in life. Even people who reported that they were “not too happy,” if they were regular worshippers, did so half as much as those who did not worship at all. Worship attendance seems to lead to feelings of happiness, contentment or satisfaction across the board.
Now…my thought is that someone who worships only once a month is barely a regular worshipper. That’s like saying that someone who smokes cigarettes but doesn’t one day per month is a regular non-smoker. Or someone who goes to the gym to get in shape once a month is working out regularly. But who am I to argue with science? If even one worship experience per month has a doubling impact on someone’s sense of happiness, satisfaction, or contentment in life imagine what doubling that would accomplish!
The truth is though, that’s not a surprising result to the study. Worship connects you with something, actually Someone, money cannot buy. And it’s not just God that we link up with in worship. In the worshipping community we connect our life to the people there with us. There’s a shared sense of hope, purpose, freedom, & joy that emerges in the worshipping community as God’s promises & his gifts are celebrated. Worship is what we were created to do, & every attempt we make to live that purpose, God blesses. It’s probably time to share that bit of science with the non-worshipper you know & invite them to test the results for themselves. You could also share Psalm 39:6-7: “We are merely moving shadows, & all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it. And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you.” or Psalm 34:10: “Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing.”
Now some opportunities for just that…
- Sunday August 2nd – we continue our a new worship & teaching series on Joshua – Learning to be Different. Under Joshua’s leadership, God’s people stand on the border of their Promised homeland. Everything about them is about to change, but they are still called to be faithful to Yahweh; devoted to the Covenant they received on their Exodus journey. Becoming the people God calls us to be is always a process of learning to be His in the varied & shifting circumstances of life. But God is always faithful to his promises. When we fail. God is ready to reclaim & restore. God is always the architect of our days no matter the challenges & changes within them. Join us as we learn to be different under the joyous shaping of God’s hand on our lives.
- Sunday is also Giving Beyond Ourselves for The Lodge – Wagga’s very own faith-based transitional housing & support community. We’ll get to hear from Danny Russell about how God is working in people’s lives & how the difficult journey into flourishing in life always calls Christ’s church to serve harder & give more generously & pray more fervently. ALSO…Morning Tea Sunday!!!
- Saturday August 15th I Living Water Prayer Morning @ the Prenzler’s home 10:00 a.n.
- Saturday August 22nd – Albury Men’s Convention with Guest Speaker Malcolm Gill – We’ll have a car driving down…talk to Phil or me if you’re interested in going. It’s a great day of learning & fellowship with men from around the Riverina.
- And a few in the “Claim the Date” file:
- Tuesday 8th September – feeding the CSU UniChurch students! Details will come closer to the date.
- Sunday 27th September – Annual InterSport Lake-to-Lake Run-n-Ride – Worship begins at 12:00 noon with lunch in the Guide Hall
- Sunday 1st November – Living Water AGM immediately following worship.
See you Sunday!
John
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