Financial information does not always tell the whole story

Recently, I came across this quote attributed to Albert Einstein:

"Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted."

This reminded me of one of the classic misnomers in stewardship -the idea that you can tell what is important to someone or to an organization by looking at their checkbook. This belief surfaces in statements like, "If you really valued my department you would be willing to invest more resources in it." In my personal life and professional experience overseeing budgeting for over a decade, there are many cases where these sentiments are plain false. In reality, many of the most important things have comparatively little or sometimes even no attributable financial cost. They count but they cannot be counted. And, a fairly expensive item may not be a top priority but could be a necessary cost of doing business. Importance does not always correlate with relative cost. Whether one is evaluating an individual or an organization, more than just financial information is needed to truly assess where priorities lie.