ON BEING RICH

by   Don Wildmon                                                                                                                                           Vol. X, No. 7, August 1997

[Dr. Donald E. Wildmon is president, American Family Association. This article is reprinted from a recent letter from AFA. You can contact AFA at P.O. Drawer 2440, Tupelo, MS 38803.]

Luke 12:22—"For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing."

Somewhere I ran across the story of a man who visited a certain home. The home wasn't much to look at, kinda run down and lacking even a good coat of paint. Outside the home, in the yard, a little boy and his sister were playing. They were laughing, and running, and having a good time. The man surveyed the situation, summed up that the family wasn't very well off.

He asked the small boy some questions about the home and family. The little boy told him that his father had not been able to work lately because of illness, and that his mother had to care for the father. When asked about his patched clothes and his bare feet, the youngster explained that he had not had any new clothes since his daddy got sick. After a long period of conversation, the visiting gentleman found out that the little boy and his sister had not been to a movie, or to get a cone of ice cream, or any of the normal accepted childhood pleasures for several months. Wanting to say something to help the boy and his sister face the difficult situation, the man spoke. "It must be awful bad to be poor." Quick as a flash the youngster answered back. "Mister, we ain't poor. We just ain't got no money."

How true! How eternally true! He was happy. He loved his sister. His parents loved him. He knew why his family was in the shape it was in financially, and he didn't complain. Money could not have bought what he had.

How very shallow our judgments go sometimes. How very misplaced our values of riches. We think the only rich people are the people who have money. How miserable life would be if we had to face it on that basis—being poor if we had no money.

We've made a terrible mistake here. And we have passed it on to our children. That mistake is thinking a person has to have a bankroll in order to be rich. What a poor, pitiable basis from which to judge richness. No man is poor who has character and purpose, whose life has been touched by the Galilean Carpenter, who has love of God and love of fellowman. Every man is poor who lacks those things regardless of his bank account. Whoever uplifts civilization, though he die penniless, is rich, and future generations will erect a living monument to him in deeds. A great bank account can never make a man rich and often hides real richness from him.

A man is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has. We are important because we are God's children, not because of position, or power, or money. No man is rich who has a poor heart. One of the first great lessons of life is to learn the true estimate of values. How poor are those whose major goal is a growing bank account. A rich mind and a noble spirit will cast over the humblest person a radiance of beauty which most millionaires will never know.

Don't pity the person who is lacking money. Pity only the person who is lacking in character and purpose, who rejects the Galilean and the Father, and has no love for his fellowman. For they are the poor ones. But those who are the opposite are rich far beyond the expression and means of money.