March/April 2001

Do You Really Want to be a Millionaire?
Is That Your Final Answer?

by Lis Trouten

Who wants to be a millionaire? The popularity of Regis Philbin's television program suggests that a lot of Americans would love to be rich.

But be careful what you wish for. Being rich isn't all it's cracked up to be. People who have been there know that life's not so easy on Easy Street.

The Idle Rich

"One of the fantasies of people who don't have wealth is that they will inherit money and never have to work again," says Thayer Willis, heiress to the Georgia-Pacific lumber company fortune. She told Internet columnist Mary Rowland, "Most inheritors know that that makes you feel terrible. You just feel useless. Even when I was a child, there were a lot of suicides among the people I grew up with. Some were described as accidents, although we knew they really weren't."

American Dream or Nightmare?

Money can buy physical comfort, but it can't buy comfort for the soul. Football legend Deion "Prime Time" Sanders learned the hard way that you could "have it all" and still come up empty.

"I tried everything," he says in his book, Power, Money, & Sex: How Success Almost Ruined My Life. "Parties, women, buying expensive jewelry and gadgets, and nothing helped.... You've got all this media attention and everything the world has to offer, but no peace, no joy, just emptiness inside."

Drowning in his wealth, Sanders hit a point so low that he intentionally drove his car off a cliff. He walked away from the wreck realizing that, despite his flamboyant lifestyle and brimming bank accounts, and despite the approving roar of the crowd, he was in the worst trouble he had ever known.

Jesus knew about that kind of trouble. He said, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" (Luke 12:15).

Doug Pagitt has seen that in his pastoral work among desperate people in an upscale Minneapolis neighborhood. Most of the people there are young couples who have achieved great financial success. An annual salary of $500,000 is not unheard of. Homes are beautifully refurbished. The busy sidewalks lead to gourmet eateries, trendy coffee shops, gift shops, exclusive toy stores and art galleries.

Yet there's desperation in this land of plenty. "They have everything they thought they wanted," says Pagitt, "but they're seeing it isn't enough. They wonder if there's something wrong with the whole promise behind the pursuit of happiness."

Too often, the church isn't addressing these questions. "Pastors look at wealthy people and see them as the ones who've won the game," Pagitt says.

In fact, the wealthy may be more at risk for spiritual problems. A recent Gallup poll commissioned by the John Templeton Foundation found that 55 percent of American households think money and prosperity contribute to a decline in spiritual life. The more money people made, the more likely they were to agree that money muffles spirituality.

Money Isn't Enough

As a young man, Bob Buford quickly climbed the ladder of success. By the time he was 34, he had surpassed his business and financial goals. He had a good marriage and a healthy young son. Everything was coming up roses, everything was going his way, and yet he found himself asking, "Is this all there is?"

Buford went off one afternoon and sat under a tree to think it over. Success, he realized, did not equal significance. "What am I likely to lose in all this gaining that I'm doing?" he asked himself. That led to a second question: "If my whole life worked out perfectly, what would be the elements of that life?"

He identified a number of elements of real success, starting with, "to serve God by serving others." Since then, Buford, author of the books Halftime and Game Plan, has founded FaithWorks, Inc., a ministry that shows people with wealth how to move from success to significance by finding causes they care about and investing in them.

No Guarantees

Money buys good medical care, and therefore, to a degree it can buy good physical health. Money buys homes that are warm and safe (at least until a mudslide or hurricane hits). Money can even be used to buy a "get out of jail free" card for troubled and troublesome sons and daughters.

But the same wealth that makes our earthly lives comfortable can make our eternal lives more difficult.

Jesus gave a clear warning about the dangers of earthly success. He said it's more difficult for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. To enter the Kingdom of God, he said, we must become as little children -- living in complete dependence on God.

When money is plentiful we can easily believe the illusion that no matter what life throws our way, we can handle it with a wave of our magic checkbook.

"Because this nation is so blessed," notes Argentinian evangelist Ed Silvoso, "most people do not need God every minute. If you live in East Timor or in Kosovo, you know that if God doesn't spare your life no one will.

"Because we live in such comfort, because we have such resources, we think we do not need God as much as the rest of the world, so we don't dial his number as often as those in the rest of the world."

In times of prosperity, we are quick to conclude that we are masters of our own destinies. We are offended by the very idea of dependence on God. "I don't want anybody to die for me," says media mogul Ted Turner, with the petulant tone of a small child insisting he can cross a busy road by himself.

People have reacted this way for thousands upon thousands of years. Speaking through Moses, God warned, "When you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord. You may say to yourself, 'My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.' But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth" (Deuteronomy 6:11-12; 8:17-18).

While acquisition of wealth is often dangerous, the loss of money isn't necessarily a bad thing. Mary Chiles of Springfield, Missouri, is one who had the good fortune to lose her fortune. Chiles is from a long line of independent business owners; her family history on this continent goes back four centuries. But she and her husband have had to sell their company and are going through personal bankruptcy.

Their perspective is unusually clear for a couple in the middle of this kind of upheaval. "Spiritually, it's a gift -- not that it isn't painful," Chiles says. The financial downturn has heightened her family's awareness that there is no real security in wealth.

"Joy," she wrote in a recent journal entry, "is the kind of happiness that doesn't depend on what happens. God is my refuge and strength and security, none of which is determined by apparent circumstances."

Foul-weather Friends?

Humans have a tendency to be God's "foul-weather friends." When things get tough for us, we look to God for guidance. This is not wrong. The Scriptures constantly invite us to bring our troubles to God. But when the sky lightens and our steps are strong, we once again seek our own path.

So, how do you keep times that are good for your pocketbook from being bad for your soul? Here are five tips to help you cope with the good times:

1. Don't make wealth your primary goal.

"Wealth by itself is not a bad thing, and the Bible does not say it is a bad thing," says Indian-born Sam Elisha, who ministers to international students. "Acquisition should never be your goal, unless God has specifically called you to be wealthy. Then the Lord will say a second thing, if you are hearing right when you say that he has called you to be a multimillionaire. He will tell you what he wants you to do with your wealth. If you don't hear the second, I doubt that you heard the first."

2. If you're afraid of losing your money, you're holding on too tightly.

Liz Coker is CEO of Minco Technology Labs, Inc., a $17 million semiconductor business in Austin, Texas. She launched the company in 1981, and in 1992 was named Texas Small Business Person of the Year. But as a young farm girl in the Tennessee hills, she wouldn't have been pegged for success. "We were so poor we didn't know we were poor," she says. Being comfortable with her past has made it easier for Coker to accept her present. "Fear that makes a lot of people dwell on their wealth is the fear of going back. I don't have that fear," she says. "If something happened today, I could live very modestly."

3. Don't expand your needs.

Even during their prosperous days, the Chiles family drove cars that were several years old. "You'd never realize how affluent they were by looking at their lifestyle," said a close friend. They avoided the trap of increasing their consumer spending just because they could. "This culture is designed to create new needs in you," says Elisha. "You have to fight that demon."

4. Keep in touch.

When you look at the wealthy, gated communities and the tinted windows of stretch limousines, you see a visible indication of the fact that wealth tends to isolate people from others. The reasons vary. It's hard to distinguish those who like you and those who like your money. It can be wearisome to be around people who are envious. Or you actually believe that your wealth means your life is more valuable than the lives of others. But remember -- if you've cut yourself off from people Jesus died for, you've taken a wrong turn.

5. Don't measure blessings by bucks.

Three young couples, friends from Bible college days, sat around a living room in suburban St. Paul, Minnesota, catching up on each others' lives. Tim and Penny were hosting the visit in their newly purchased home. Drew and Candace had also recently purchased a home, so stories were told of looking and finding and closing and moving. "God has blessed us so much!" the two couples agreed.

Randy and Karen had listened quietly. They were living in an apartment and had little to add to the conversation. But at this comment, Randy spoke up. "Are you saying, then," he asked carefully, "that God hasn't blessed us?"

Startled into momentary silence, the home-owning couples realized the spiritual pit into which they were in danger of falling: equating material gain with God's favor.

The million-dollar question Jesus asks is this: "Do you love me?" What matters is not what we have, but that we love God and others. And that's the final answer. 

Lis Trouten is the former associate editor of the Minnesota Christian Chronicle.

St. Francis of Assisi Francis (1182-1226) was born into a wealthy Italian family. His father was a successful merchant, and Francis was destined to follow in his father's footsteps. As a young man, Francis was dedicated to the pursuit of fun. He was popular, charming and often picked up the tab -- which only increased his popularity. During a military conflict with a neighboring city, Francis, who had volunteered for the calvary, was captured and remained a captive for a year. Although he was still in his early twenties, Francis' captivity caused him to examine his life -- and the purpose of life in general. After a difficult time of reflection on what God wanted him to do, and a bitter disagreement with his family, Francis decided to turn from pleasure and materialism and devote his life to the poor and sick. One of the first actions of his transformed life was to care for lepers. Disinherited by his physical father, Francis embraced those who were disenfranchised by society. Francis' life of service was highlighted by an emphasis on simplicity and physical poverty. Francis' humility, kindness and love for humanity inspired others to follow him, eventually resulting in what became known as the Franciscan Order. St. Francis of Assisi dedicated his life to live the life demonstrated by Jesus Christ. -- PT Staff

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