A Case of a Converted Billions-Aspirant!
By: Geo (September 2nd, 2008)
“Money is everything in life”, said a really bullish young man, who had made some good money in his careful investments spread across diverse investment options. He was willing to diversify it further into more riskier options to increase the chances of multiplying the returns. He was confident because, at a 9%, the GDP growth looked robust and increasingly improved ratings coming over from various global rating agencies only proved as an icing on the cake. Also pouring in were the news of increasing interest of more and more global players in India. IT, BT, BPOs, pharma, retail, telecom, infrastructure all looked big! He was glad that he was living in such a significant time in history and at the right place. His cousins in the west were thinking hard about coming back, while he was glad that he had a lead over thousands of such young and talented people in other nations of the globe! He had money and loads were going to come his way in the coming days!
Yeah, money does give that heady feeling. It does leave such an effect. It does make you feel secure. It allows you so much. I have wondered many times whether I am doing the right thing by not planning my investments precisely! Whether I am doing right by not having money higher up in my priority list? When there is money in the hand or in the bank, the very tone of talking, the very approach and attitude and demeanor is so different. I have noted that even in me. The outlook is so ambitious, the dreams are so reachable, the complete talking and the attitude itself is so fearless! Perhaps, money is so many things. But is it everything in life?
I was thinking all this while Matt and I were munching away at a Paneer Turnover! It was delicious, filling and recharging. We had just finished through a long discussion on Matt’s future plans, especially his plans and views regarding his future earnings! All that and now all these thoughts brought back some of the discussions I had on the same topic with a learned and committed missionary of the gospel who is also a renowned writer. The discussion was only going to heat up!! Soul Café, ready!!?
Me: Matt, do you know what Jesus put opposite God? I mean, as a worthy opponent of God?
Matt: “The devil” of course!
Me: Well, that’s what we have assumed. But the truth is not so. When Jesus talks about two masters, he said, either we can serve God or we can serve mammon (money)!! Jesus refers to only two masters to mankind! God and money!
Matt: What about the devil? The one called Satan!! The once upon a time archangel Lucifer!
Me: Yeah, it will be surprising to most people. But Jesus doesn’t consider him an opponent at all. What is Satan before God? He is just a mere creation. It’s in the human context that Satan looks like an opponent of God, but for God, Satan is similar to a human, “a creation”. Compared to man, Satan maybe more powerful, but for God he is “nothing”. And then he definitely is not a master! However, Satan has mastered the art of cheating and craftiness, but still, he is not a master. He is a thief, says Jesus himself! Man will either serve God or serve money!
Matt: But listen uncle, I control my money. I decide where the money goes and how and when it comes back. It’s surely the money that serves me and not the other way!
Me: So it seems Matt. Tell me something, when you want to buy the services of a watchman, what will you do?
Matt: What a question! I pay him a salary, of course!
Me: So when you give out money, it serves you a purpose by availing you the services of a watchman. The same hold true for anything that money can get for you. So that means money is serving you, when you give it out!
Matt: So!? What are you trying to say!?
Me: That the converse is also true!! When you keep the money or take money, you are serving the money!
Matt: Oh God! So you are asking me not to keep or take money!! How will anyone live!?
Me: It’s when we keep and keep on keeping and take and keep on taking, that’s when we need to re-examine our case more carefully. That’s when money has really started mastering us and we have started serving money!
Matt: And what about those who keep serving money?
Me: They commit injustice and sin.
Matt: Oh Come on!! What are you saying? Saving money is sin! It is injustice!! Have mercy!!
Me: I am saying that hoarding it definitely is a sin. I will explain. Just tell me one thing. Before money was introduced in this world, how was any kind of trade or commerce done?!
Matt: It used to be the gold and silver and other coins but much before all that was the barter system - the system of exchanging goods.
Me: Yes, precisely. So the one who had too many eggs used to give away some eggs in exchange for some vegetables and the one who had too much milk used to give it away to the one with too much rice and so on and so forth. Now notice something about this system.
Matt: What? That they were only trading perishables?
Me: Well the examples I have taken are the perishables to make you understand. The one who had too many eggs after all the exchanges would finally give away his excess eggs and the one with too much milk would give away his milk to whosoever was need around them. These goods were going to get spoiled by the next day and because the people had no refrigerators, they used to give away excess food! So there were lesser and lesser chances of people being left hungry on the streets.
Matt: And refrigerators now have the excess food in them than in the stomach of the hungry!!
Me: Yeah, that’s true. But much more painful is the fact that money has allowed people to exchange their excesses in the market place in exchange for currency and currency allows them to keep their wealth and assets all for themselves and keeps them from sharing it will needy people around them!
Matt: That’s true. Very very true! So that’s how you say, money brings injustice!? You are right. So now what do you say that I should do!?
Me: I cannot tell you what you should do. But I will definitely ask you to think about everything in life not in the context of the 40, 50 or 70 years that we live here. When we think in that frame work, we tend to put our peaks within this time frame and fill it up with things available within this setup.
Matt: You have lost me there. Can you please explain that?
Me: I mean to say is, when we think in the framework of few years, we will plan it in such a way as to reach the best possible place within that framework, maybe near the end of it. For example, for a man thinking of a 60 years framework, he would like to peak around 45-50 year age. He would like to have reached his maximum possible goals within that age, leaving him to relish and enjoy his achievements and accomplishments for the remaining time! And what will be his achievements! Lots of money, a big and good house, a good car, lots of grandchildren etc!
Matt: Okay. So how will you explain the life of a person who thinks outside this 60 year framework? How will his life be different?
Me: When you plan within a 60 years framework, you will load your life with things that are available in that 60 year framework! But when you plan your life and view it from a much longer framework, say a 10000 years, things will be different!
Matt: Come on uncle, how can we mix up life and afterlife?
Me: That’s where we many times mess up. We separate it as life and after life. But Jesus said, ‘the Kingdom of God has already come”. Your eternal life begins not after your death, but here on earth itself. We have to mix up the two and think like that. There is no life and after life. There is only death and life. Paul says, we were dead in our trespasses, but now we are made alive. Life actually begins in Christ.
Matt: Ok, so tell me how will this person’s life view be different?
Me: For a man who thinks in the perspective of 10000 years, he will definitely not peak when he is 60 years old. He will accumulate things that will allow him to peak much later and for that he will borrow and accumulate not just things available in the 60 years framework, but also in the framework beyond 60 and less than 10000. Jesus said to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven where moth or rust will not destroy nor thieves steal! Paul reminds the Ephesians to see with their eyes of faith the glorious inheritance we have with the saints. Actually, the Bible is full of provisions and promises from this unseen and apparently unavailable framework, and the apostles remind us constantly to draw our strength and resources and to borrow from it to accumulate heavenly treasures, prizes, rewards, crowns!
Matt: But it’s so impractical! It sounds so foolish or at least crazy and insane to even listen to talks like this, let alone live it. It’s so difficult to trust even these few years here, how can we then think of the times beyond the life here?!
Me: I understand. It’s very difficult, because we tend to go by what we see and hear. We need tangible proofs. There are difficult times and circumstances, even now, that make me think like you do, but then a plane voyage helps me!!
Matt: Plane Voyage! What do you mean?!
Me: I have traveled a lot by air and each time the plane takes off, I make it a point to look outside and see how the sprawling buildings, the tall and handsome people and the big cars will look once we are in the air. The huts and the big buildings look equally grand. The small and the luxurious cars look equally attractive. The small and the average man and the tall, well built and handsome man, look equally wonderful from the air. I mean, a few hundred feet in the air, and all this earth and everything in it looks so small and insignificant! We are such a small part of this apparently big set up. No wonder even the place we live in will forget us!
Matt: So what you mean to say is that the actual plan is much bigger and we can see it only if we take something like an aerial view. You mean to say, look at things as God sees it?!
Me: Precisely and do you know what are these treasures we need to lay up in heaven?
Matt: Lots of Gold and Diamonds and other precious jewels.
Me: (laugh) I am not sure about Gold and Diamonds and jewels. They might be there, but walking on streets of gold and walking through doors made of these jewels, I don’t think they will attract me anymore than what my city’s streets and my house’s door post attracts me now. But I do look forward to being able to spend time with God himself. You know David was told by God that He himself will be David’s portion in the land of the living! Oh my! That just makes my hair rise up. God himself becoming my portion! It’s similar (though in a paltry way) to a hypothetical situation wherein you are required to choose between Leonardo daVinci or his paintings!! I don’t know what you will choose, but I surely would go for daVinci.
Matt: Yeah ultimately, it’s people that matter and nothing else. I remember an illustration a preacher once said wherein we were asked about what we would do if we had only one more hour of our life left? It was an eye opener. With just one more hour left, I would spend it with people I love and cherish and not with things and materials and achievements for sure. I remember having got convicted by that example. But then with time, I forgot.
Me: Yeah, that’s what always happens. Its not that we don’t know, but we live over it. So it’s not just important that we set our perspectives and priorities in order but also we find people who have similar perspectives and priorities and start walking and moving with them.
Matt: Yeah I understand what you are saying. Just the way I move around with our bunch which is working on its own startup, I need to chose my company wisely.
Me: A wise man said, “Show me your friends and I will tell you your future.” Yes, the company we move about with, matters a lot. I think it is precisely to enforce this concept that Jesus required two or three to gather together in his name, two or three to agree when they ask. He also sent his disciples two by two! We do not need to walk this walk all alone. We can and should take people along - like minded people.
Matt: Yeah, this talk really does put a lot of things in perspective. I will surely work on my startup but I will surely ease down the plans and try to share my progress, growth and blessings with people around me and not just plan it all around me and my family and my future. Yes, I will give much more than my tithes. I will start scouting for more like-minded guys too. I will give more time to God’s kingdom.
Me: It does look easy but it will not be. The world will hate us because we will not do things as they do, and we will not agree with many of their means and ways and ends. It will be a walk with a cross on your shoulders - not at all easy. The cross ultimately does its work, it overwhelms its carrier.
Matt: You surely make it sound scary but I really want to make that plane voyage with a fresh outlook (laughs). I need to tone not just my physical body, but the real me, my spirit too.
He surely did sound like a man converted. But again, he might forget all this when he goes back into his world. But I sincerely hope that he maintains this fresh perspective about money especially and not only him, but all of you who are reading too. You won’t realize it but money will enslave you. Not in a way perhaps that you start feeling like a slave, but money starts dictating your time, your priorities, your involvements, your tastes, your future course etc. It becomes the master and lord. Let me reiterate what Paul says in Ephesians, “may the eyes of your heart be enlightened to see the hope of your calling, your glorious inheritance with the saints and the mighty power of God vested in you!”
It was time to make a move from the Soul Café. Oh God, what more will happen in Soul Café? I trust you to lead me.
September 2nd, 2008 at 11:50 am
[…] “Money is everything in life”, said a really bullish young man, who had made some good money in his careful investments spread across diverse investment options. He was willing to diversify it further into more riskier options to … Original Geo […]