W E’D LIKE TO HAVE the farmer’s problems. More crops than he knows what to do with. More money than he can spend. The farmer doesn’t get his wealth illegally or by taking advantage of others. His future is set. He seems surprised by his good fortune and makes reasonable plans to make the most of the harvest. What is wrong about building larger barns to store away some of today's bounty for a potentially leaner tomorrow? Nothing, except ....
He is called “fool.” He is not foolish because he saves for the future; he’s foolish because he believes that with his wealth he can secure his future: “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”
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NO MATTER WHAT you may hear, financial well-being does not mean that we are in right relationship with God and neighbor. Ultimate worth, dignity, meaning, and relationship are gifts offered freely to us by God. When we understand that in our hearts, we are able to put our relative wealth in perspective and be generous toward others.
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ACTRESS MARLO THOMAS grew up with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at the center of her life. Her father, entertainer Danny Thomas, founded the charity to provide state-of-the-art care for children with life-threatening diseases at no cost to their families. In the current AARP Bulletin Marlo Thomas has some valuable advice for us regarding our possessions. I’ll highlight a few.
■ You don’t have to be a zillionaire to change the world.
She says, “My father used to say that he’d rather have a dollar from every American than a million dollars from a few.”
■ Observe the needs around you.
Caring for people is all about noticing. When we see needs, we’re more likely to be touched by those needs and respond.
■ Cultivate gratitude.
Our children and grandchildren need to learn that money isn’t just something to spend on yourself. We must learn to give it away. Grow gratitude.
■ Never underestimate your impact.
Ira Jackson managed to donate a little to St. Jude every month. Then he got a terminal illness. In a letter to the hospital during his final days, he wrote: “I’m prepared to die, but I’m concerned that the little children won’t have a chance to grow into healthy adults. My last wish is for you to use this letter to find someone to take my place.” Ira’s donations didn’t add into the billions. He was a retiree on Social Security. He gave about $80 — not a month — TOTAL. He gave us as much as he could and was worried when he left that there wouldn’t be any more. The hospital shared his letter and got 900 new donors who gave hundreds of thousands of dollars. Never underestimate your impact.
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IN JESUS’ STORY, the farmer’s sole focus is on himself: “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul..”
Someone, I don’t remember who, once used the names of magazine to illustrate how culture has become self-centered. Magazine names: first there was Life. Then People. Then Us. After that, Self. The farmer is fixated on self. He gives no thought to using the abundance to feed the hungry. To clothe the naked. To offer a tenth to the Temple, as the Bible commands. There is no offer to help others, no expression of gratitude for his good fortune, No thanksgiving for the workers in his fields, no recognition of God at all. The farmer worships the most popular of gods: the Unholy Trinity of “me, myself and I.”
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THERE’S AN OLD STORY, a fable from the brothers Grimm, about a fisherman and his wife. It goes something like this. A man is out fishing. He catches a big fish. Now this big fish can talk and the fish talks the man into letting him go. The man goes home and tells his wife about the magical talking fish. The wife insists the fish owes the man for setting him free. The man must go back and ask the fish to grant them a wish. I live in a filthy shack. I want a better house. The man doesn’t want to do it, but he does in order to please his wife. The man calls the fish, tells the fish about the desire of his wife. The fish tells the man, “Go home; she is in a cottage.”
Sure enough, the man goes home to find his wife standing in the door of a cottage. She says to him, “Come in. See, now isn’t this much better?”
There’s a beautiful little parlor, and a bedroom, and a kitchen, and a dining room. It’s beautifully furnished with everything a home should have. And outside there is a little yard with chickens and ducks and a garden with vegetables and fruit.
“Yes,” said the man. “This is quite enough. We can live here very well.”
Well, a few weeks pass and the wife is no longer satisfied with the cottage. She pressures the fisherman to go and ask the fish for a palace. The man tries to argue that the cottage is good enough but the woman insists. “This place is not big enough. I want a palace.”
The fish grants her desire. “Go home,” said the fish. “She is in a palace.” When the man arrives home, it is no longer a cottage but a palace with chandeliers and the best wines and a magnificent garden.
But the next morning the woman isn’t satisfied. “Go to the fish immediately. I must be king over all this land.”
Again the fish complies with the woman’s desires. “Go home; she is a king.” Sure enough the palace is now a castle and his wife is wearing a large gold crown. “Wife, it is very nice that you are king. Now we don’t have to wish for anything else.”
But she became restless. “I must be emperor.” She becomes emperor.
Then, “I want to be pope.” And she becomes pope.
The man sleeps soundly believing there was nothing else she can want. But the woman stays awake all night, tossing and turning. She sits in bed and watches through the window as the sun comes up. She pokes her husband in the ribs, “wake up and go back to the fish. I want to become like God. I cannot stand it when I see the sun and the moon rising, and I cannot cause them to do so. I will not have a single hour of peace until I myself can cause them to rise. I want to become like God.”
The man begs her to be satisfied with being pope. She grows angry and shouts, “I cannot stand it and longer! Go there immediately! I must be like God!”
The fish asked the man once again what the wife wanted. “Oh,” he said, “she wants to become like God.”
“Go home,” said the fish. “She is sitting in her filthy shack again.”
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TO BE LIKE GOD is not to possess more and more things but to be generous in love and to give of what we have for the good of others.
Thanks be to God.
— Keith Cardwell
