Wealth is relative

Dr. Rob Henslick is an optometrist who took two weeks off from work to visit Kenya and treat some of the thousands of individuals who need optometric care. It was on a trip into a tribal area to do a medical clinic that Dr. Rob was chatting with his driver, who, glancing out of the window, said, “These people are wealthy.” At first Rob thought, He’s not seeing what I’ve just seen – small, very humble mud houses covered with cow dung to keep the mosquitoes out, women carrying water from the river, red dusty roads and bare-footed kids playing in the streets.

“How is it you say they are wealthy?” Dr. Rob asked.

His driver said, “Well, they have a cow, a herd of goats and a farm – and they can live off the land. These people are considered wealthy in Kenya.” And he was right. Wealth is relative.

Contentment and wealth are not corollaries, but contentment has far more to do with your attitude than your resources or your lack of them.

When soldiers approached Jesus, thinking that He would side with them against the government who paid them poorly, He told them, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely – be content with your pay” (Luke 3:14). Paul, whose life was difficult and challenging at times, wrote the Philippians, saying that he had learned to be content in any and every situation. The writer of Hebrews addressed this issue with strong words and a motive for contentment when he wrote, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5).

Contentment comes only by understanding that God is your sufficiency and He will never fail to meet your needs.

Used with permission from Guidelines International Ministries. To learn more about Guidelines and the ministry, send an e-mail to [email protected]. You may also visit www.guidelines.org.