Cheapness

Martha Berry (1865-1942) founded the Berry Schools at Rome, Georgia, never marrying, she devoted her life to the education of poor children from the tenant farms of Georgia.  The schools were started in a small church called “possum trot” still on campus.  Later in life, many philanthropists including Henry Ford contributed much money to her efforts because of her philosophy that students must learn to use the hands head and hearts and her philosophy “not to be ministered unto but to minister.” They paid their way through college by working on the farm.

Early in Miss Berry’s educational vision she went to the richest man in America, John D. Rockefeller, an American billionaire even at that time, and asked him for help. He gave her one dollar (he was known for walking around the streets of NY and handing out dimes) she went back to Mr. Rockefeller, some years later, and thanked him for the dollar again, and told him she bought $1 worth of seed peanuts which were planted by the students on the Berry farm and that his one dollar had made thousands of dollars in peanut production.

Recently, I heard an uninformed young man on a radio talk show state that most wealthy people travel on their own private jets.  I called and informed them that J Paul Getty, another American billionaire, founder of Getty Oil Company, like Rockefeller, a world philanthropist, said, “ He would fire any man who worked for him who did not ride coach class in a plane”.

Once in my life, traveling the world, I was “upgraded” from coach to first class. I will have to admit that you are treated much better in first class. But someone as cheap as this writer, as frugal as I have been from my youth, I would ride in the rumble seat, on a plane, if it were cheaper and available. From my earliest days, I have been called cheap, miserly, etc.  My college friends called me “iron pockets”, I did not, and do not spend on anything, unless it is absolutely necessary. The money you spend, you can never invest, it is gone forever. By living frugally, my entire life, I educated myself (my education came long before the time of grants and scholarships), and with the help of God invested in securities and real estate, which has enabled me to be generous to schools, churches, and God’s work.

Cheapness is not just a matter of money. I cannot imagine any female cursing herself with cheapness, so that she would sell the intimacy of her body and soul to anyone on the street willing to pay for sex. But, like Hosea’s wife Gomer, she at least got paid for her sexual activity much to the disgrace of her husband Hosea. But to the church people of Hosea’s time who would criticize him for having a wife, just a common prostitute, he would say then as today, her clients pay her. The religious people then as now, are the prostitutes and they do the paying.

Almost as mysterious and nonsensical, those who consider their lives so cheap (remember, you only go around once, this is not a dress rehearsal), who abuse their bodies and destroy their health with drugs (alcohol is a drug), overeating, not getting enough rest, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

Regardless of how conservative we can become in our purchases in the smart buying of real estate, securities, etc. we should still keep in mind that our fellow man has a right to make a living.  When I go to a restaurant, the service station for my car, or even paying my electric bill, I want to pay a fair price because I know the person who furnishes the service or pays people who furnish  his service, they have lives, families needs and they need to make a living in their chosen work.  Likewise, employees deserve to be paid as promised for the work they do “for the labourer is worthy of his hire”. (Luke 10:7)  it has never bothered me to pay someone to do something for me that I cannot do for myself.  I just want to be treated fairly.  I have told this to audiences for years, I have two rules for business practices, 1. I charge what I would be willing to pay. 2. I treat everyone as I wished to be treated.  If you will follow those two rules of business practice you will never be broke. 

A form of cheapness I will never understand, for those who are blessed with a good mind, why they do not learn everything possible.  There is so much knowledge in the world, so many good books have been written, so much good music has been recorded, so many good photographs have been taken, scenes painted, why not avail yourself of the worlds knowledge.  Instead of spending your time, using your eyes and ears, choking on bones when you could be gorging yourself with the meat of the ages.  A child wants to learn, who will soak up knowledge like a sponge. If a mother reads to a small child, that child will love reading and the mystic of a great imagination. Life goes by so fast, as you get older you realize it.  There is no time for the foolish exploits of mediocrity.

In life, every step we take is either towards God or away from God. Every step, every thought is important.  Don’t cheapen yourself by going in the wrong direction.  At the great Notre Dame cathedral in Montreal, Canada, I once saw a man crawling up the steps evidently crying and praying.  On the street outside Paro in Bhutan high in the Himalayas, I encountered a man who likewise was crying and praying as he crawled down the street. I do not believe either of these are expected, but we should be wise in our steps. Charles Shelton, in his famous book, In His Steps, states that our greatest work is that expended on others, the steps we take, the sounds we make, the work of our hands, is not cheap. We are the most expensive designs of God’s creation, there is nothing cheap about us. God valued us and put such a great price on us that he sent his beloved son to redeem us. There is nothing cheap about the redemption in Christ.