I had a brief exchange with a man years ago while in New York City.
We were in lower Manhattan, near Wall Street.
I asked him if he knew where the subway entrance was.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know. I’ve never taken the subway.”
He was dressed in very expensive clothes
and had an expensive brief case and expensive shoes.
Not a hair out of place. Attractive.
“I have a car at home but it’s like a movie set down there.”
He wasn’t interested.
There are some people who are so far above normal people
that they cannot relate.
I’ve been around several very wealthy people in my life.
And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, He said,
“How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!
Luke 18:24
The riches of this world are enticing.
We want our idols.
I have some of them.
A nice car, a nice house, a loveseat that used to be Cary Grant’s.
Would I give all up for the Lord if He asked?
It’s all fading and vanity.
The nice car is aging.
The nice house is old, almost a whole century
and needs ongoing repairs, it seems.
Something is always breaking or wearing out.
You fix it and something else happens.
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher,
vanity of vanities; all is vanity. Ecclesiastes 1:2
There was a show I watched many years ago, a reality show.
They put two groups of people together in one large house,
the rich and the poor.
There were 20 people, 10 rich, at least multi-millionaires
and some even greater.
They were all children of wealth.
Then the other 10 were in debt,
all sorts of conditions
that led them to be considered poor enough for the show.
All were financially destitute.
They paired the people up and showed one pair
that had a day off to spend however they wanted.
The rich guy was unlikable.
The single mom he was paired with was very likable.
It was her daughter’s birthday
and the pair went to her apartment to celebrate her daughter’s birthday.
They showed the event and it was very sweet.
The daughter was so glad to see her mother
and you could tell the mother loved her daughter so much.
The rich guy was a good sport.
On the way back, the rich guy said,
“I’ve had lots of birthday parties,
but I never had my parents love me that way.
They gave me many expensive gifts but they were always distant.
I have never seen so much love.”
Yes, the riches of this world are emptiness and as Proverbs 23 says:
will fly away like an eagle to heaven.
Do not overwork to be rich;
Because of your own understanding, cease! v4
Will you set your eyes on that which is not?
For riches certainly make themselves wings;
They fly away like an eagle toward heaven. v5
If you work for earthly riches, you might get them, then what?
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world,
and lose his own soul? Mark 8:36
Some people come to America for a “better life”
They might be trading the riches of family time and cohesion
for the striving for worldly wealth and materialism.
As time goes on, we may see our possessions vanish
and be left without them.
It is hard to say exactly how the future will play out.
It is something we should ask ourselves:
could you give it all up for the Lord?
Lately, I’ve been praying for that wealthy man I talked to in Manhattan.
I hope to see him someday in heaven.
I am suspecting that is why God is bringing him to mind
so I can pray and God can work on his heart.
When you have great riches,
your compassion is not always there for the less fortunate.
You may have never been hungry or lacking.
If you stop your ear to the cry of the poor,
you will cry and the Lord will not hear you.
Think of what John the Baptist might have looked like.
Dressed in camel’s hair and eating locusts and wild honey.
Or even Jesus who had no place to lay His head
and intentionally was not an attractive man
so we wouldn’t desire Him for His fleshly beauty:
he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him,
there is no beauty that we should desire him. Isaiah 53:2b
Jesus will say to some:
For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat:
I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink:
I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me:
I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying,
Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee?
or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in?
or naked, and clothed thee?
Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them,
Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Matthew 25:35-40
Love the unlovely.
Do good to those who cannot repay you.
Let us always put people above material things
and be reminded that those who are in need
might be the ones about whom Jesus said
‘you did this for Me’
Mother Theresa picked out maggots from lepers.
Maybe we could ask and seek the Lord for compassion
to care about the poor that much in a different way?
Scriptural References:
Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor,
he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.
Proverbs 21:13