The Need For Greed?

The Need for Greed?

True godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. . . . People who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.

1 Timothy 6:6, 9

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is the story of three down-on-their-luck prospectors and their search for gold in Mexico. At one point in their search, the prospectors are joined by a fourth man who is soon killed in a shootout with bandits. The other three approach the body, which is propped up against a large rock. They decide to find out who the man was.

They remove the dead man’s wallet and some papers. “His name is James Cody; Dallas, Texas. There’s a letter from Dallas too. Must be his home,” one of the men says, and shows the others a photo of a woman and starts reading.

Dear Jim: Your letter just arrived. It was such a relief to get word after so many months of silence. Little Jimmy is fine, but he misses his daddy almost as much as I do. He keeps asking, “When’s Daddy coming home?” You say if you do not make a real find this time, you will never go again. I cannot begin to tell you how my heart rejoices at those words. Now I feel free to tell you, I’ve never thought that any material treasure, no matter how great, is worth the pain of these long separations.

I do hope that you are back for the harvest. Of course, I’m hoping that you will at last strike it rich. It is high time for luck to start smiling upon you. But just in case she doesn’t, remember, we’ve already found life’s real treasure.

Forever yours,

Callie

Nothing pulls us further away from our true treasure than insatiable greed. Jim certainly had a fine wife in Callie, but he felt compelled to once again leave home in search of more fortune. It’s a common trap, even today. The desire to “strike it rich” has come between many a husband and wife. Sure, we don’t go off to cash in on an actual gold rush these days, but we do go off to put in more hours at something that keeps us away from each other, all for more money. When we let greed get hold of our hearts, we often miss the richness, the fortune that we already have in each other. So the next time you find yourself trading in time together for a “great opportunity” or for more cold cash, consider the plight of ol’ Jim and how money-hungry ways caused him to miss out on the true treasure of his marriage.

One of the weaknesses of our age is our apparent inability to distinguish our needs from our greeds.

—Don Robinson