Dust in the wind

One time I bought a new car and my secretary at the time exclaimed that I sure was “lucky”. I told her that it was amazing how this worked, but somehow it seemed that the harder that I worked the “luckier” I got. Just the other day I had someone exclaim that I was “too blessed” by God. “Huh?” I asked, “Do you suppose God got it wrong?”

He then told me that I should give him some of the money that I have, because “God has given me more than my fair share”. He went on to tell me how lucky I am

I told him that if it were the 60’s I might chalk his comments up to either short term memory loss or a bad LSD trip, but I do not remember God “giving me any money”. I related that I am not very lucky and have never hit the lotto, won anything, or found any buried treasure. I have never inherited anything.

I started my career in Atlanta cleaning mortar off of bricks with a hatchet in order that they could be reused for fifteen dollars cash per day and lived in a boarding house that cost me fifteen dollars per week. My first real job paid $350/month and I remember dropping out of college at night, because I had a wife and child to feed and I worked exceedingly long hours at my day job in order to ensure they had what they needed. I remember literally working 20 hours a day for years (as in 7 AM until 4 AM day in and day out); I remember investing everything I had and taking risks that would make a brave person shudder. I remember banks turning me down for loans and further humiliating me by laughing out loud in my face when I asked to borrow enough to start my business. I remember my family, friends, and acquaintances telling me the same thing and adding that I was crazy to start my own business, and that I was doomed for failure and to forget about it and get a real job. I remember missing too many of my son’s baseball, football, soccer, and basketball practices. I even remember celebrating my birthday on a plane heading for India to work with programmers when I had a sinus infection so bad that I thought my head would explode on the 30 hour plane ride. I remember being the first one at work and the last to leave for years; right up until today. I remember being patient and maintaining perseverance even when I was worn out, discouraged, and felt like quitting.


I continued by telling him I am blessed by God in that He forgave me my sins and He loves me for reasons unknown. He also gave me a brain and some aptitude. He provided me opportunity, but I had to be the one to take advantage of it. If it were not for my determination to succeed and strong work ethic, I would not be successful at much of anything and if it were not for my love for Jesus and my desire to obey God I would be just like so many of the bums in the Keys where I live that have nothing but a life of eating, drinking, drugging, chasing ugly women, and fishing; not necessarily in that order. It is called the Keys disease and many are suffering its devastating effects on their miserable lives.

We have choices in our lives. There are no free rides in this world. Because of sin, God told Adam that he would eat bread “in the sweat of his face” until he returned to the ground. God cursed the ground and told Adam that he would toil all of his life and so would his descendants. The Bible tells us that if a man will not work he should not eat. (Hillary and her liberal buddies might think otherwise with their welfare for one and all, but they are not in sync with God.) If you want to succeed in this life, then work harderOtherwise accept your fate in this life and stop whining about all of the things you do not have!

God has blessed me with a wonderful wife, family and health. He has saved me from my sins and loves me. He has provided me with my wiles and talents, which I have tried to use to the best of my ability to earn a decent living for my family. I have accumulated some money and I use it to both reward my effort and to help others and to further God’s important work. I am sure that God wants me to do just that and I sleep well at night and do not apologize because I may have a few more possessions than the next fellow.

Frankly I do not think God cares much about money or even thinks of it or material things very much. He knows that all that stuff is passing and will not even be a consideration throughout eternity. Now that I have accumulated some stuff, I can understand why it is not so important to Him; it is not all that important to me either and certainly is not what those who do not have it and long for it think it is.

I realize that soon all that stuff will be gone like the wind and in as few as a mere hundred or so years all that I have accumulated will already be rotted and blown away like the dust of my body when it returns to the earth from which it came; like the somber song declares, “merely dust in the wind”. However billions of years from now the righteous work that has been done in this lifetime by God’s children will still shine brightly.

So the moral of this long story is don’t wish for the wind of fading materialism; rather focus on the everlasting foundation of spiritualism It is doubtful that God is going to give you money. If you want more money, then understand how it works; the harder and smarter you work, the more money you will have. God gives us all opportunities, but make no mistake about it; we must take it from there.

Finally if you are “lucky” enough to accumulate some wealth, keep it in perspective in relation to eternity. Don’t make wealth your God, stay humble, fear the Lord and enjoy – you earned it

Proverbs 22:4
By humility and the fear of the
Lord
are riches and honor and life.