Thought for Today
Deuteronomy 8:17 Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth."
Psalm 49:10 When we look at the wise, they die; fool and dolt perish together and leave their wealth to others.
Matthew 6:24 "No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
Evidently, the race is over. I lost! In case you have not heard, Elon Musk is set to become the world’s first trillionaire. I probably should send him a gracious note of congratulations; but, I suspect he has people to handle for him all the correspondence from folks he has never heard of and never will hear about.
To try to understand, one trillion dollars is written $1,000,000,000 ,000. For those of us who remember scientific notation, $1 x 10 to the 12th. That is a lot of zeros.
Interestingly, when I was young, a millionaire was anyone who had accumulated $1,000,000 in net worth. Often today, the term millionaire is used to refer to anyone making $1,000,000 annually.
Another way to understand $1,000,000,000 ,000 is that if one spent $1,000,000 per day, it would take 2, 740 years to spend the $1,000,000,000 ,000! Imagine the task of trying to spend $1,000,000 per day. How quickly would you run out of things to buy?
As a Christian, a more interesting question for me would be, “How does one truly measure wealth?” Is real wealth measured in dollars and cents? Is real wealth measured in material accumulation? I know little about Elon Musk beyond what I hear on television or read in the newspapers. I know nothing about his personal life. I know nothing about his spiritual life. Neither is any of my business. Neither is of any personal interest to me.
I do know that my own personal material wealth will never approach $1,000,000,000 ,000. I do know that I will never be ‘challenged’ to spend $1,000,000 per day. I also know that I am a very wealthy person.
My wealth is not measured in material possessions. Greta and I enjoy a very comfortable material life. We have warm clothes in the winter, cool clothes in the summer. We have ample food to eat. We have shelter from inclement weather. Most importantly, we have each other. We have a wonderful family and exemplary children and grandchildren.
We have been blessed with a wonderful family of faith. With that family of faith, we worship our Creator God. Could $1,000,000,000 ,000 buy any of those things? It could buy companions. It could buy people to do things for you, to keep you company and to keep you comfortable.
I believe the only true measure of real wealth is in the relationships we have with each other and with our Creator God. I believe the only measure of the worth of our lives is the positive impact we have on the lives of those around us.
And, I believe Luke is correct, we cannot serve two masters. First, note that Luke puts everything in terms of service. Do we serve material wealth or do we serve God? Do our possessions ‘own’ us, or do we ‘own’ the possessions?
As a Christian, I try to focus on attaining the words I read in the Parable of the Talents, “Matthew 25:21 Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”
I do not think my losing the race to Elon Musk will have any bearing on my goal of attaining God’s new assignment of being “in charge of many things,” nor will it prevent my hearing, “enter into the joy of my master.” How could I possibly ask for anything more?
Stay safe, pay attention to the race you run, trust God,
Pastor Ray