Currency Choice

Currency Choice: Money or Love?

A reflection on work, purpose, and the ultimate currency of human fulfillment

We stand at a crossroads that has existed since the dawn of civilization, yet feels particularly urgent in our modern age: What should drive our work – the pursuit of money or the pursuit of love? This isn’t merely a philosophical question; it’s a practical choice that shapes every aspect of how we live, create, and contribute to the world around us.

The Two Paths Before Us

Consider two fundamental approaches to work and life. The first is familiar to most of us: we work for money, treating our labour as a commodity to be exchanged for currency, which we then exchange for the things we need and want. The second path is less traveled but perhaps more profound: we work for love – doing what fulfills us deeply while serving the greater good of all.

When we examine these paths closely, a remarkable truth emerges. If we truly do the work we love, what need is there for money as we currently understand it? And if we work purely for love – for the joy of creation, the satisfaction of service, the fulfillment of purpose – then the work we do consequently would benefit everyone.

The Liberation of Purpose Driven Work

Imagine if you loved to dig wells, to create reservoirs, to bring clean water to every home and carry away waste. If this work filled you with purpose and joy, you would do it not for personal profit but for the wellbeing of all. The community would have clean water not because they could afford to pay for it, but because someone loved the work of providing it.

Consider the farmer who genuinely loves to cultivate the land, tend livestock, and distribute food. When driven by love rather than profit, their goal becomes nourishing people rather than maximizing revenue. The baker who loves to bake feeds the community not for coins, but for the satisfaction of seeing others well fed.

The same principle applies across all human endeavors. The weaver who loves to create textiles, the builder who finds joy in construction, the teacher who delights in sharing knowledge, the healer who finds purpose in caring for others, when these individuals work from love, they transform from employees or entrepreneurs into custodians of the wellbeing of humanity.

Breaking Free from Economic Slavery

There’s something profound in the comparison to the ancient Israelites walking away from slavery in Egypt. For many of us, our relationship with money has become a form of bondage. We work not because we love what we do, but because we need the money. We spend our days in activities that may feel meaningless or even harmful, justified only by the paycheck they provide.

But what if we could walk away from this system? What if we could organize our communities around love and service rather than profit and accumulation? This isn’t necessarily about returning to a pre-monetary society, but about fundamentally shifting our priorities and motivations.

The Practical Question

Of course, the immediate practical question arises: How do we eat? How do we have shelter? How do we obtain the necessities of life if not through money?

The answer lies in understanding that when everyone works for love – when the farmer farms for love, the builder builds for love, the healer heals for love – the community’s needs are met not through economic transactions but through mutual care and shared purpose. The farmer feeds the builder, the builder houses the farmer, and both care for the children and elderly, not because they’re paid to do so, but because they love their role in the greater whole.

A Revolutionary Choice

This isn’t merely about finding a job you enjoy or achieving “work-life balance.” It’s about a fundamental revolution in how we think about work, value, and human relationships. It’s about choosing love as our currency and contribution as our wealth.

The path isn’t easy. It requires us to examine our deepest beliefs about security, success, and what makes life meaningful. It asks us to trust that when we serve from love, we will be served in return – not through contractual obligation, but through the natural flow of a community built on mutual care.

The Time to Choose

We each face this choice daily: Will we work for money or for love? Will we perpetuate systems that treat human labour as a commodity, or will we pioneer new ways of living that honor the deeper currencies of purpose, service, and joy?

Perhaps the transformation begins not with grand economic theories, but with each of us asking: What do I love to do? How can I serve? And what would change if I chose love over money as my primary motivation?

The ancient Israelites walked away from slavery toward a promised land. Perhaps our promised land lies not in a distant geography, but in a transformed relationship with work, community, and what we truly value. The choice of currency – money or love – may well determine whether we remain enslaved to systems that diminish us, or walk free into lives of authentic contribution and joy.

The question remains: Which currency will you choose?

5/9/2014

Currency choice, money or love?

Do the work you love

Love the work you do

If you do the work you love then what need is there for money?

If you work for love, then the work you do benefits all

Therefore if you love to dig wells, to create reservoirs, to pipe water to the homes of all and pipe away waste then you do this for all and have no need of money.

If you love to cultivate the land or love to farm livestock or distribute food stuffs then what need have you for money.

If you love to spin or weave or sew or tailor what need have you for money.

If you love to build what need have you for money.

If you love to share knowledge

If you love to heal and care for others

What need have you for money

If you love your work or work at what you love, then like the ancient Israelites walked away from their slavery in Egypt; walk away from money and work for all, for love and be free.