One author tells the story of a
woman who met a friend of her father’s who had not
seen him for many years. The woman’s father was a
devout Christian, so she found great joy in telling
his old acquaintance about her dad’s recent cancer
fight, of his trust in the Lord, and the way he
faced suffering and even the prospect of death. She
was very proud of her father’s ways.
The friend, however, had lived a
different kind of life. Having given himself over
completely to earning money and hoarding every cent
he could, he had become very wealthy. But he didn’t
have the same glad anticipation of the future as his
friend did. He explained it to the daughter this
way: “Your father can be more optimistic about
heaven than I for a very simple reason. He is going
to his treasure. I’ll be leaving mine!”
It has been said, "Money is a
good servant, but a bad master." A greedy person can
never have enough of physical or material things.
They think of making more money, creating more
wealth, and becoming more prosperous. They dream of
money in their sleep, bring up money in their
conversation, and believe that money talks, money
makes money, and they forget money makes the devil
his employer. The void in their heart becomes a
gaping hole and, if unchecked, a crater.
Do you remember the verdict on
Martha Stewart? She had a net worth in the billions,
but she risked everything to save $60,000 in stock
value. She faced prison time for something that must
have seemed like a small infraction to her. Like
her, we may think that small departures from
integrity are no big deal.
Do you remember Bernie Madoff? He
was convicted of fraud and operating a Ponzi scheme
that is still considered the largest financial fraud
in American history. He became the picture of greed.
Now here’s the shock. You don’t
have to have millions and or billions to become
greedy. The threat of greed can fall on anyone with
any amount of money or even someone with the lack of
it. If we’re not careful, we could all find
ourselves in a “Mine Field.”
I have a DVD of an old movie
classic called, “Kelly’s Heroes.” The movie is
packed with some big name actors and takes place
during the Second World War. During the movie,
Kelly’s soldiers walk into a mine field, and two of
his friends are killed. The rest have to crawl out
on their bellies carefully maneuvering around the
mines. It is a tense movie moment and depicts the
caution that must be taken when we hear the word
“mine.” A mine field is a very dangerous place to
find one’s self. There are still some places in our
world where the danger of stepping on a land mine is
still a real threat.
