The opening quotation from Mike Murdock fascinates me. I am of the conviction that the joy of having money is not for the sake of storing it; but for the sake of spending it for worthwhile causes. This is why Mike Murdock puts it succinctly that money does not create joy, but money creates ability and with it you can express love, pay bills and solve problems.
Experience has shown that many people take joy in accumulating money just for the sake of accumulation but not for the creation of ability. Could it not be the reason why our nation is backward? Instead of using money to create opportunities for many people, money owners are just happy for the fact that they have stacked millions and billions of naira into local and foreign accounts.
A story is told of a rich man who owed a poor man. One day, the poor man had nothing to eat so he decided to call on his rich friend to get his money. Upon enquiry, the rich man hid in his bedroom and sent his younger daughter with the message, “tell him that I have travelled.” In her innocence, the little girl went and delivered the message: “daddy said I should tell you that he has travelled.”
Robbing the poor to take care of our needs brings a lot of ill-luck from God. This act is biblically condemned in 2Samuel 12 when David took Uriah’s wife and God sent Prophet Nathan to him to condemn the act. We should therefore, avoid feeding on the sweat of others while we take pleasure in counting our ill-gotten wealth in our banks.
One of the factors that prevent many from paying their bills is the issue of whether they will benefit from it in their lifetime. Take an instance of the primary needs of a man which are food, shelter and clothing. Many people would prefer to take care of their families by providing food and clothing, but shelter is almost put at the background and not attended to. A family head may not take the issue of providing shelter seriously because he is not sure whether if he starts the construction of a house today, he may be able to complete it before he dies. It is often a great shame when our big men live in rented houses in cities and when they are finally called by God to depart the earth, they have no shelter in their villages where their friends and associates can sit for wake before their final internment.
The fact is that if you take the first step of providing shelter for your family, even if you are not the immediate beneficiary, your family may benefit from your sweat as they will eventually build on the foundation you have set. It is against this background that Nelson Henderson once said that the true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
Fr Indyer, CSSp, is the principal of Holy Ghost College, Sankera, Benue State ([email protected])
