Get Rich Quick.....but at what price?

As so soon as I saw it, i recognised it.... That familiar style, that bold "Important Mail" stamp, that promise of instant riches. I knew there wasn't really $55,000 dollars in that envelope but still i felt compelled to make sure....just in case.

It reminds me of a lesson i learnt about myself just the other week....

I had scored some free tickets to a wealth seminar called "The Millionaire Mindset". The promoter promised me that the secret to unlocking wealth was already within and that all I had to do to unlock it was to change my thinking. "Why not?" I thought, I could do with being rich...in fact i deserve to be rich. And with that i booked my spot and started planning how to spend my future wealth.

Now i'd like to tell you I found the secret to becoming rich. That suddenly it all clicked and I now posses the answers to global poverty. I'd like to show you pictures of my new luxury yacht and boast about how succesful I am as you listen attentively hoping to grasp hold of even a slither of my new found wealth wisdom. But I can't, because the lesson i learned about myself was so much more valuable.

I discovered that I am NOT driven by the things I thought I was. Part way through a day listening to Millionaires talk about their wealth journey, escaping the clutches of poverty and now offering me that secret strategy for the bargain price of only $4,999, it suddenly all clicked. I didn't care about becoming rich! I didn't want more money...I didn't need to be wealthy...I wasn't in desperate need of a "millionaire mindset" and I wasn't motivated by the almighty dollar. I recognised it wasn't what drove me and it wasn't what made me get up in the morning. Which is lucky because I work for the church.

And so I left that seminar not with the intended "Millionaire Mindset" but with a fresh perspective on myself and my own motivations. I didn't need to be rich to be happy, I already had what I needed and it didn't cost me any money. Instead of going back for the rest of the seminar, I spent the next day with my family, taking them out for lunch and enjoying the important things of life...family, fellowship, freedom. These things I wouldn't trade for all the money in the world.

So remember this valuable lesson next time you see that "Get Rich Quick" scheme. You can't buy the most important things in life, no matter how much money you have....or intend to have. Look for the eternal riches all around you. Stop chasing the wind and pursue those things that really matter.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy,

and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

 

Matthew 6:19-21 (New International Version)