How Much Money Do Americans Need
It is said that when someone asked John D. Rockefeller how much
money he thought Americans really needed he answered with...just
a little bit more. If this is so then people who switch bank
accounts to gain a tiny percentage better interest on their
money are still on the same road as any gain driven, portfolio
conscience, and millionaire questing entrepreneur among us.
That the hot pursuit of money can pull someone away from all
other matters in life is now becoming more obvious in America.
Some people who have made their first million and more are
turning to something else for fulfillment. Some are becoming
volunteers, others are joining religious movements and still
others are giving their money away to help those less fortunate.
Why is this happening?
I have traveled through a lot of the world and have developed an
obvious bias when it comes to Americans. Besides being the most
stubborn, silly and obstinate people on earth I am sure they are
the kindest people as well. The level of caring for others here
outshines anything I have seen worldwide. On the collective
level Americans often raise more money and send more aid the
people of foreign countries than their own governments raise to
help. On the personal level the stories of generosity and
kindness are countless. It is a matter of the heart I'm sure.
As a boy my mother drove me to the town square to do a few
errands with her. She told me to go to the news stand and buy
her daily paper while she went to do an errand. I wandered
slowly down the street window shopping as I went with my
imagination in high gear, it was Christmas time and I was
dreaming of all the things I though Id like to have at that time
when it was most likely I might get them.
I was within a block of the news stand clutching the fifteen
cents tightly in my hand for the paper. I passed by the doorway
of an unoccupied building and there sitting on a tiny wooded
platform was a legless man. Shabbily dressed and unshaven he sat
shivering in the cold with an old tin can in front of him
stuffed with a few yellow pencils. He called
out...pencils...five cents. I froze in my tracks and gazed at
him. My emotions were a rock hitting the calm waters of a pool
sending splashes and effects everywhere at once. I had not seen
anything like that yet in my life.
A sense I could not explain or describe gripped my heart. I gave
him the fifteen cents and stepped back as he tried to give me
three pencils. I said ...no, sell those to someone else, and
then I ran. My mother scolded me when I explained what I had
done but I couldn't hear her very well. All I could do is to
think about that man and his condition for hours, even days to
come. Up to then I had paid little attention to higher morals,
right and wrong or religious teachings. I was just too busy
being a boy. What made me stop and give him the money puzzled me
for years. I know now it was something I am made of and not
something I learned.
That is what I mean about Americans although not all. They are
made of something different. I can only guess that it the grace
of God still lingering on a nation that hasn't given up
completely on things that are right and faith in a living God.
When they do turn from these things it seems they don't notice
it too well because they do it by degrees. With the distraction
of so much information and education along with the profusion of
entertainment and recreational options it seems Americans are
drifting. They aren't just drifting from higher principles but
from higher purpose. They are learning what everything is made
of but forgetting what they are made of.
Some temptations are more universal than others. Most people
will not become Presidents or statesmen and most will not become
well known actors or performers. But many people realize that in
today's booming economy there is opportunity to become very
rich. At the very least there is opportunity to get...just a
little bit more.
If the unbridled pursuit of just a little more money can pull
people away from God's message to them, then it is reasonable to
think that it can pull them away from many other things as
well...even themselves or who they really are.
And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have
heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and
pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. Luke
8:14