Nearly everyone works only to GET paid.
They work for MONEY! Most people believe that money is the yardstick of success.
Without dollars, pounds, marks, francs, yen, they feel it is impossible to attain a full image of success.
That concept is WRONG.
You should NOT work FOR money! HERE'S PROOF!
A BRIGHT, eager, alert, young man from the valet service smoothly parked my car at the curb of the traffic island in front of the Los Angeles Air Terminal. I had just arrived from Salt Lake City. It was late at night and I was impatient to get on my way. Sensing this, he briskly loaded my luggage and ushered me into the car. As we drove back to his dispatch office he smoothly reminded me that he'd tuned in the radio to the program I preferred. (He had only fine tuned the station to which I'd listened while driving to the airport.) He told me his name, gave me his card, and glibly mentioned that if I would ask specifically for him the next time he would bring my car more quickly than any of the other drivers. His card indicated that he also sold real estate and he gently informed me that he could take care of any of my needs in that area also.
This young man was working hard — day and night — to be a success. So I asked him about it. He confidently replied that he was already on his way. He had plotted his course and was doing "everything" to assure success. He was quick of wit. He was studying and applying practical psychology. He was industriously pursuing his brand of success.
As we parted I gave him some "success" — money!
He is snagged — "hooked" — by a shoddy substitute for success. In our spoiling society "Money is worshiped as the root of all happiness; it is more godlike than God. Harvard's Dean Monro says sardonically, 'The ability to make money excuses everything else'." (Look, September 24, 1963)
Anything to Get More Money
And so headlines are continually ablaze with the old news that some group or another is on strike because it wants more money.
It makes little difference that the economy of the entire nation, or even the world, might be at stake. Large and important worker's groups, with far-reaching power and effect, bring the whole nation to a stumbling, smothering impasse when they choke off production, distribution and consumption of basic commodities or services. Just to assure their own personal "success" — defined by dollars and cents.
Even the staid and "noble" professions of medicine and nursing resort to these same tactics in order to maintain their status quo or enlarge their incomes. They too want their measure of success.
Mankind, caught up in this futile rat race, is well on the way to collapse. The trap which will destroy all chances for success and happiness gapes greedily to repay greediness.
The ugly facts are obvious ". . . in these Disunited States today, every special interest group, nurses, social workers, teachers, and college professors, as well as farmers, truck drivers, machinists, and businessmen — is hell-bent for building and using collective power to gain a larger share of the nation's product for its members while doing everything possible to reduce their contributions of time and talent to the creation of anything needed or desired by other citizens" (R. E. Strain, Professor of Economics, Calif. State College, Long Beach, Los Angeles Times, August 14, 1966).
Not that it is wrong to receive pay for work. God knows and says a laborer is worthy of his hire. Not that things are wrong in themselves. Christ means for all men to follow a way which will provide full, abundant lives — physically and spiritually. But the deluding concept that wages and things are an end in themselves is entirely false. They are only the fringe benefits which God intends for those who are truly successful.
Not realizing this fundamental the world drives relentlessly on trying to acquire possessions.
Financial giants labor and plot ceaselessly to enlarge their holdings. But in the end death makes good its inexorable claim. The financier goes into his grave and leaves his money behind. He can't take it with him! His "success" is only temporary.
Nobody Satisfied
Smaller men foolishly interpret the accumulations of such leaders as "success." Duped by our competitive system they emphasize getting! Without realizing the end result, they set off in pursuit of their will-o'-the-wisp. They thrash about in their own little puddles and ponds without ever finding the satisfying certainty of true success.
But there is never quite enough! In a recent poll, it was found that people believe a 30 percent income increase would solve their financial problems. But soaring incomes over the past generation prove the cry will always be, "MORE!"
How much does it take to satisfy?
Another poll showed $75 a week would satisfy one man, but a banker considered a cool million a year not too much. It often depends on where one is on the financial ladder at the moment. This is illustrated by a survey conducted by Printer's Ink magazine which revealed that 76 percent of the advertising industry's executives who make over $25,000 a year are unhappy in their jobs. More than 21 percent of those interviewed blamed their gloom on the belief that they were UNDERPAID.
It's easy to be miserable on a large income.
The most casual observer knows that a great many people who have big homes, color TV's, fine cars, cabin cruisers and country club memberships are chronically unhappy. They are unsure of themselves and the system in which they live. They acquire things — but success, security and real happiness remain elusive.
No matter the number, variety or combination of the feelings, sights, sounds, smells, or tastes experienced there is always something more for which to yearn.
Yesterday's sensations fade. Tomorrow's impressions never quite meet expectations.
An aching void develops. In desperation men try to satisfy their inner cravings. They are prone to try harder and harder to stuff more and more things into their hollow lives. The greater their efforts the more vacuum they create — the more dejected and heartsick they become. There is no satisfaction — no filling answer — to be found in material possessions alone. They give only temporary respite which soon turns to dust, ashes and wind. This is the road to wretchedness about which we've been warned.
A Warning!
The apostle Paul warns us, "But they that will be rich [those who keep planning because of their eagerness to have money and things] fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a [not "the" as some have erroneously assumed, because of a mistranslation] root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows" (I Tim. 6:9-10).
He goes on in verse 17, "Charge them that are [already] rich in this world that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy."
These words sternly warn that we must be careful in the way we obtain our wages. We must not set our heart on the riches that our study, labor, and employers provide.
The apostle James gives further warning when he says, "Do you think the scripture says in vain, the spirit that dwells in us lusts to envy?" (James 4:5.) It is natural to try to acquire the things which they hope will satisfy the cravings of their fleshly minds and bodies. But this is useless vanity. Solomon, the wisest, and one of the richest men who ever lived, proved this for himself. He had everything. Did everything. But in the end he had only a handful of wind — VANITY! Read Ecclesiastes 1 and 2 it's an eye-opener.
In spite of the fact that some men have amassed tremendous wealth they have never been able to find peace or happiness in their storage vaults or bank accounts. Even J. Paul Getty — a billionaire — is quoted as saying, "I would gladly trade my millions for just one lasting marital success."
It is simply impossible to find real, deep satisfaction when our initial and emphasized effort is toward the getting of things merely to "consume them upon our own lusts."
Everyone talks money, and no one thinks he has enough of it. The accumulation of money is equated with success. One Detroit boy said: "I want to get ahead, and I'll step on people to do it. Money is important to me. I enjoy the good things, and I don't want to have to work a whole lifetime to enjoy them. I want to be successful." (Detroit Free Press)
Our society is lost in just such a moral vacuum. We have plunged so far from the truth we don't know what to do. We're caught up in the stifling web of materialism. It clings to us — threatens to destroy us — as we cling to things.
"Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, 'The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.
"The western world is full of things, all right. We've rung the bell of materialism; we've won the cigar. No other civilization has even come close. But are we 'happy as kings' or do we give the lie to Stevenson's happy thought with our neuroses, our tensions and depressions, our divorce and alcoholism and delinquency — our emotional troubles?
"Perhaps we haven't yet learned to live with all our things. Instead of possessing them, they may possess us. We may have turned possession into obsession. Some people do. . . .
"Wouldn't it be a wiser goal to learn how to live with the abundant material production we've achieved? . . . There is nothing wrong with 'things'. It's our attitude toward them which makes all the difference. . . . Possessions after all, are only a means toward a better life — not ends in themselves." (By Howard Whitman, Kansas City Star)