When news broke that the United States Mint officially produced its last penny, it got me thinking. The penny has been part of American life since 1793. It has carried the faces of Lady Liberty, Benjamin Franklin, and, for more than a century, Abraham Lincoln. Children collected them. Cashiers counted them. We filled jars with them. We ignored them on sidewalks. And now, after more than two hundred years, the penny’s long story quietly comes to an end.
The reason is simple. It costs more to make a penny than a penny is worth. Depending on the year, the U.S. Mint has spent between two and three cents to produce one cent in value. Eventually, the cost outweighed the return, and the penny’s run simply stopped.
That phrase stuck with me. The cost outweighed the return.
I couldn’t help but think about how often we do the same thing with our lives. We spend precious time, energy, attention, and emotion on things that cost us far more than they are worth. We invest ourselves in habits that drain us. We carry burdens that crush us. We chase pursuits that leave us empty. Yet we continue to produce them, even though the return is painfully negative.
It is one thing for the government to stop making pennies. It is another thing entirely for us to keep manufacturing patterns in our lives that hurt us spiritually.
Jesus said in Matthew 16:26, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” That is the language of cost and return. That is the language of spiritual economics. That is Jesus asking us what we are minting in our lives and whether the value of it is worth the price we pay.
Think for a moment about the things we often spend our lives producing.
Worry
Worry costs us peace, sleep, and joy. Yet it never pays us anything in return. Jesus told us plainly that worry adds nothing to our lives, yet we continue minting it daily like a machine that refuses to turn off.
Comparison
Comparison costs us contentment and gratitude. It robs us of celebrating what God is doing in our own lives. We pour emotional energy into measuring ourselves against others, yet comparison has never once made anyone more satisfied or more Christlike.
Bitterness
Bitterness costs us freedom. It costs us clarity. It costs us healthy relationships. It eats away at the soul, yet it never returns anything but more pain. Still, we hold onto old wounds like they are worth something.
Busyness with no purpose
This might be the greatest negative return on investment in modern life. We fill our calendars. We race from task to task. We exhaust ourselves in the name of productivity, yet our souls become thinner while our schedules become thicker.
The penny’s story reminds us of an important truth. There comes a time when you must stop producing what no longer benefits you. There comes a moment when you must look at the cost of something and admit it is not worth what it is taking from you.
If it costs you your intimacy with Christ, it is too expensive.
If it costs you spiritual health, it is too expensive.
If it costs you your family, your integrity, your joy, or your calling, it is too expensive.
Colossians 3:2 tells us, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” That is an invitation to shift our investments. To stop minting what has a negative return. To start producing what builds eternal value. Prayer. Scripture. Worship. Service. Repentance. Encouragement. Generosity. These are things that always pay dividends in the kingdom of God.
The penny may be gone, but its end serves as a quiet reminder to evaluate the things we are manufacturing with our lives. Some things are simply too costly to keep producing. Some habits need to be discontinued. Some emotional investments need to be closed out. Some priorities need to be revalued.
The Mint made a wise decision when it stopped making pennies. Maybe we need to do the same with the parts of our life that are costing us far more than they are worth.
It might be time to shut down the production line and let God mint something new in you.
Randy – great spiritual comparison you made in this article. And universally applicable. Trust that the school is doing well. Bruce Rodgers, class of ’76 (Theology) & ’77 (Music). Pastor of Fellowship Bible Church, Temperance, MI. (Staying young!)
Awesome, thank you Randy!
Very good thoughts. We should all take it to heart.