Endless Gain vs. Endless Void
I'm sitting in an Aspen cafe as I write this post, a place I'd never been before this trip, a place known for where the rich and famous gallivant around in their wealth and relax in their luxury ski chalets. Not somewhere I fit in. In fact, I keep watching to see if they will realize I'm too poor to be here and ask me to leave to make room for the wealthy patrons, haha.
I didn't expect to really see the rich and famous though, I figured they would be in their chalets away from the plebes like me, but to my surprise they're out here in public too. I was seated in a cafe the other afternoon when I arrived, and in came a guy and a girl who seemed close to my age, around 30, and they sat at the next table. I overheard their conversation, I had no choice, and I heard them talking like rich people I guess do.
One asking the other how was New York, name dropping Bezos, J Lo, and other celebs I can't remember whom they recently saw and updating the other on how they were gonna be rich the next day when they closed a deal with a client, wow typical rich girl problems, etc.
Odd for me to listen in on another world essentially, something I only saw on TV, and it's just these people's regular life. But I felt something in the midst of this conversation, just an odd emptiness - not for myself - but for them. I'm not rich, I've never vacationed on the beach in Spain "so long that they started telling me my Spanish was almost perfect" or anything like that, but I felt that they were... well, intentionally very open with their "lifestyle of the rich and famous" so as to let others hear them to be approved or envied, perhaps.
I got a sense that they, or at least the very talkative gentleman, were empty inside and seeking to fill themselves with all the "best" stuff. I always wonder what the wealthy feel inside, to be poor has it's hardships, but it comes with a blessing of the awareness that we have needs we cannot fill and I believe that ultimately leads us more easily to the eternal, to find God calling us to Himself. But the rich... seem so often to be 'comforted to death'.
Like how the Bible talks about in Proverbs 18:11, "The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it a wall too high to scale." Almost like rich people live like electromagnets, their wealth is their power, they can pick up almost anything if they are powerful enough. But us lower class and poorer types just don't have the power to pick up nearly so many things. So the rich go through life, accumulating their wealth, power and possessions, their fortified cities which 'cannot be overcome'.
In James 1:9-10 as well, "Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower." Humble circumstances allow us a less cluttered view of our lives, we see more clearly our need for God, our blessings from Him, and know that we don't have the power in ourselves to do or have 'it all'. We can take pride, the healthy kind, in our clarity that God is our source of power and supply, that it is not us but God who provides for us and His provisions are eternal, lasting riches.
The wealthy, however, have the problem of being quite able in their own strength and capacity to provide for themselves with earthly riches, it can numb a person to their need for God. Why do I need God when I can get myself anything I want? I have no need for Him, I can provide for myself. But He who dies with the most toys, still dies. If the rich lose everything, it is a blessing that humbles them and allows them an opportunity to feel their need, and hopefully to call on God. He loves the rich who call on Him as well as the poor.
All of this is, of course, conjecture, an educated guess on my part, because I don't actually know any wealthy people personally. It would likely be a very odd thing indeed if I just stop a rich person in Aspen and ask to interview them for my own improved perspective on the affects of wealth on your view of God. Who knows though.
I'm not condemning the wealthy, I'm merely observing and contemplating that lifestyle against my own experiences. I live in a low-income area, but surrounded by wealthy retirees and transplants with mansions and private golf courses. My whole life I have seen it all at a distance and I wonder what our area would look like if they spent less on mansions and more on helping our homeless population. I'm a hypocrite though, because I tend to hoard my limited resources and look out for my own family as well, maybe they are the same way just with bigger paychecks.
The lifestyle of the rich and famous will never truly satisfy them, or anyone, though. Riches pour into a life that, visible or not, has an endless void. You can have literally everything you could ever want but still be spiritually bankrupt. There is one currency that never devalues, the riches which never fade, peace with God, through His Son Jesus Christ and his free gift of forgiveness.
His mercies are new each day, our daily allowance of grace and peace and joy and love, wealth that retains it's value for eternity. Through Jesus and His Spirit in us, we are all equally able to collect incorruptible wealth and riches that last beyond the grave.
"Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment."
- 1 Timothy 6:17