I encountered an article recently entitled, "How Rich Are You?" Of course in my mind I quickly said, "I'm not rich at all." But then I read on....
Let me quote it: "You're richer than you think. At least according to Poke, a London-based creative company that specializes in interactive media. Their Web site, The Global Rich List, generates a wealth ranking for its users based on their annual income. For example, if you make $52,000 a year (the median American household income for 2009), you are the 58,252,719th richest person in the world...." [There are about 6 billion people in the world now] They pointed out that that [$52,000 per year] puts that person in the top 1% of everyone in the world!
Even someone who makes $26,000 a year is in the top 10%.
Now, one may put up a caution and say, well, that's income. How expensive is it to buy things where you live? And a point can be made there. But still, the larger point holds true: we Americans are, for the most part, rich, globally speaking. But we don't like to think of ourselves that way.
Being rich has its advantages...and its disadvantages. According to the very rich investor Warren Buffett's son, 52-year-old Peter Buffett, his business titan of a father rarely if ever spoiled him. Peter has just written a book, "Life is What You Make It: Finding Your Own Path to Fulfillment," in which he describes how he ended up a "normal, happy" person instead of a spoiled child to one of the world's richest people.
"I am my own person," he writes, "and I know what I have accomplished in my life. This [Life] isn't about wealth or fame or money or any of that stuff. It is actually about values and what you enjoy and finding something you love doing." His father didn't let "the silver spoon" in Peter's mouth become what the elder Buffett calls, a "silver dagger in your back." Peter talks about what his dad taught him: "Anybody who acts like they deserve something 'just because' is a disaster."
Though I would amend the title of Peter's book to say, "Life is what You Let God Make It: Finding the Lord's Path to Fulfillment," I think he makes a very important point. Those who think they "deserve something" are takers, not givers, and those people who think life is "all about receiving" are wrong. Life is really "all about giving." As Jesus Christ once said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." (Acts 20:35)
Since it is more blessed to give than to receive, DO we have more money to give than we need to receive? Martin Luther would say yes. In 1520, he once wrote, "See, in this way the love of God flows from faith, and from love flows a free, willing, and joyful life of freely given service to our neighbor. For just as our neighbor suffers want and is in need of our surplus, so we have suffered want before God and were in need of His grace."
I can personally testify how amazing it is when one begins to think that God has given him (or her) more than they need, that one has "a surplus." Certainly learning how rich we are, that we are in the top 1% or 5% or 10% of all people all over the world, helps to prove that key spiritual point. We are saved by God's rich gifts. We can help others in the same fashion.
David Hewitt
