How to be Richer than a Millionaire
Truer words have never been spoken when billionaire Andrew Carnegie remarked that “there is no idol more debasing than the worship of money.” Money is a useful tool, of course, but that is all it is. As my “millionaire research” has shown, money is corrosive when it becomes a false god. Those who understand this are far richer than mere millionaires. Here are three lessons that the truly rich embrace:
Work hard, but recognize the real source of your talents and riches: God
“…do not depend too much upon your own industry, and frugality, and prudence, though excellent things, for they may all be blasted without the blessing of heaven...”
—Benjamin Franklin,
The Way to Wealth (1758) Recognize your own mortality
There was a rich man who had land, which bore good crops. He began to think to himself, “I haven't anywhere to keep all my crops. What can I do?”
This is what I will do, he told himself: “I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I will store my corn and all my other goods. Then I will say to myself, lucky man! You have all the good things you need for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!”
But God said to him, “You fool! This very night you will have to give up your life; then who will get all these things you have kept for yourself?”
— The Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:16-20)
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Be charitable by taking action, and not just thinking about it
The people ask, “Why should we fast if the Lord never notices? Why should we go without food if he pays no attention?”
The Lord says to them, “The truth is that at the same time as you fast, you pursue your own interests and oppress your workers. Your fasting makes you violent, and you quarrel and fight. Do you think this kind of fasting will make me listen to your prayers? When you fast, you make yourselves suffer; you bow your head like a blade of grass, and spread out sackcloth and ashes to lie on. Is that what you call fasting? Do you think that I will be pleased with that?”
The kind of fasting I want is this: “remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free. Share your food with the hungry and open your homes to the homeless poor. Give clothes to those who have nothing to wear, and do not refuse your own relatives. Then my favor will shine on you like the morning sun, and your wounds will be quickly healed. I will always be with you to save you; my presence will protect you on every side. When you pray, I will answer you. When you call to me, I will respond. If you put an end to oppression, to every gesture of contempt, and to every evil word; if you give food to the hungry and satisfy those who are in need, then the darkness around you will turn to the brightness of noon.”
— True Fasting (Isaiah 58:3-10)
“I was hungry but you would not feed me, thirsty but you would not give me a drink; I was a stranger but you would not welcome me in your homes, naked but you would not clothe me; I was sick and in prison but you would not come to take care of me.”
Then they will answer him: “When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and would not help you?
The King will reply, “I tell you, whenever you refused to help one of these least important ones, you refused to help me. These, then, will be sent off to eternal punishment, but the righteous will go to eternal life.”
— The Final Judgment (Matthew 25:42-46)
“My brothers, what good is it for someone to say that he has faith if his actions do not prove it? Can that faith save him? Suppose there are brothers or sisters who need clothes and don't have enough to eat? What good is there in your saying to them, 'God bless you! Keep warm and eat well!' - if you don't give them the necessities of life? So it is with faith; if it is alone and includes no actions, it is dead.”
— Faith and Actions (James 2:14-17)
“To be worthy of heaven, Christ put as a condition that at our hour of death, you and I, regardless of whom we were (Christians or non-Christians, each human being has been created by the loving hand of God in his own likeness), will stand before God and be judged according to how we have acted toward the poor.”
— Mother Teresa - In My Own Words, Gramercy Books NY, 1996, p36.
“…it is not tithing, not sacrifice, not church-going, not even the most meticulous fidelity to sobriety, continence, or obedience, that Christ insists upon: it is our response to the least of human persons, to the poor, the sick, the old and abandoned, the hungry and thirsty, the naked, the imprisoned and unattended.”
— Kavanaugh, John Francis, Following Christ in a Consumer Society, (Orbis Books: Maryknoll, NY), 1981, p 83.
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