When wealth is lost,
nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is
lost, all is lost.
- Billy Graham
Every one of us has seen the ripples in a lake after a rock
is thrown. Most of us will never have the wealth to be a rock (Gates,
Rockefeller, Rothschild, Carnegie, etc.,) but by careful living, any man can
use the blessings of life and work, to make a ripple. There is no shame in
honest labor-- honest work. We have grown several generations here in America,
and in socialist countries around the world, surviving on the work of others.
80 years ago, when I was a child, before the time of Social
Security and the welfare department, those who did not prepare always had the
ultimate destination of the "poor house." Each county had a
residential facility called the "county home," or "poor
house," where those who were destitute lived at the taxpayer's expense.
When you passed the place-- and I remember them well-- the old men and women,
dressed in the bare necessity of plain clothes, sat in the yard or on the
porch. They had not won life's lottery. For a myriad of reasons (lack of education,
illness, disability, etc.,) they had never been able to own anything, and, at
the sunset years-- with their children often in worse condition than they--
were at the mercy of the government for livelihood and burial.
Any time I was in London, I
always came in from an airport to Victoria
station and stayed at a hotel nearby. This way I could always attend the great
church founded by Charles Hayden Spurgeon, prince of preachers. Along with his
great church, he maintained a home for the poor and disabled-- people who had
no other place to go. Once, while he was visiting a very old woman in the home,
he noticed a framed letter on her table. A friend of the illiterate woman had
told her she should always keep the letter. Spurgeon took the letter, read it,
and found that the woman was heir to a very large fortune, left by the friend
to her. The old lady was rich and unaware of it. So it is with many in today's
world, not understanding the wealth of good health, the ability to work, the
wealth of family, friends, and the all-seeing eye of God. For those with the
anxiety of poverty, disability, or despair for any reason, God tells those who
believe in Him, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." (Hebrews
13:5)
The writer was born and raised in the poverty of an Eastern North Carolina tobacco farm-- no power, telephone
or water lines. My greatest wealth was parents who taught their children the
value of a dollar, the honor of hard work, and the struggle for education. We
did not live beyond our means, and did not buy anything we couldn't pay for.
When you talk with young people in today's world, their main
ambition is to have money. I often ask, "How much is enough?" When I
was young, a million dollars was almost unheard of. The president of the United States
had a salary of $50,000 a year. In today's world one is not considered wealthy
with less than five million dollars. There are more billionaires today than
there were millionaires just a few years ago. In most circles, people are more
concerned with what others think of them than what they know about themselves.
We should be concerned with what God knows about us-- the pride we get from things, the greed
for more things, envy of other
things, lust for the things of the
world.
Love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love
of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:15
God only had to say it one time.
For the love of money
is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from
the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
1 Timothy 6:10
Lack of morality is the rule-- more than the exception-- in
every area of life. Lies and deception are the message of the day. The Truth is
Truth, whether anyone believes it or not, and
in today's world, as the famous movie line said, we cannot handle the Truth.
With blasé, we speak of 9/11. No one questions how or why the third building,
building number 7, fell 7 hours after the twin towers, or why the towers were
pulverized in mid-air. The 16 trillion admitted national debt, which when
considering all debt is 56 trillion, seemed of no concern to the gullible, and
greedy, in government. They just want to win another election and remain
politically correct. The same corporations finance the campaigns of both
political parties.
At the birth of a child, parents want an average child--
four fingers and a thumb on each hand, toes, feet, etc.-- but, in a few years,
parents want more than average. They want an above-average child. Then, some
will even spend a small fortune to get their child into a prestigious university,
because they want a well-connected child-- one with influential and powerful
friends. They want to be able to say my son/daughter the doctor, the lawyer, the
senator. Learn early the integrity of
accomplishment. Don't confuse accomplishments with fame-- think of Helen Keller
and Madonna. Forget vacations and retirement. Bask in the pleasure of having
the energy to work. It is not necessary to be a power broker in this world;
just do the best you can with what you have. Give back to God part of His
blessings to you-- whether the tithe or much over the tithe. You will never have money unless you learn to
take care of money. From college days until this day, under my bed, you will
find a loose-leaf notebook. In my "daybook," each day, I enter every
dime I spent that day for anything. You plan your next day ahead of time.
Happiness and prosperity is going to bed each night, anxious to face the trials
and rewards of the next day. You can be rich in money and many other ways.
And he said unto them,
Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consists not in the
abundance of the things which he possesses.
Luke 12:15
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