134 – May 14
“No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he only had good intentions. He had money as well.”—Margaret Thatcher
When I started thinking about become a prosperous person, I hit a stumbling block. There was a quote from the Bible that worried me for a long time: “It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to get into heaven.” (I thought for a while it didn’t say rich woman, but somehow I knew that qualification wasn’t going to fly.) I wanted to be a rich person, but I wanted to be a good person and hopefully go to heaven, too. How was I going to do both? I knew that, as a spiritual person, if I felt that money was going to corrupt me, I wasn’t going to allow it into my life. And for years, I didn’t.
Then, one evening, I happened across a television program that featured several religious scholars examining some Biblical statements, taking into account the geography, culture and the era in which it was written. I heard one scholar mention the above quotation and comment that most people misunderstood it. He said that people thought that the needle mentioned was a common sewing needle and therefore, of course, it was impossible for a camel to get through it’s eye. But this scholar laughed and said that “The Eye of the Needle” was the name of a gate in the wall of Jerusalem. And a camel could easily get through it—a moderately laden camel, that is, not a heavily laden camel. This changes the entire message. To me, this suggests that the lesson was only an admonishment to be balanced about wealth, and not overdo it to the point of overburdening your camel!
Today’s Affirmation:
“The perfect order of the Universe is abundance for everyone—including me!”
Leo J. Fishbeck, in his book Sing Your Song For All You’re Worth states “A careful study of the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, reveals that the people who were considered to be the most spiritual, those who were the great contributors to enlightened thinking, the most highly regarded, were usually very wealthy people—millionaires by our standards. As we read about their many accomplishments we find that, usually, the account ends with the statement, ‘And he was favored by God.’ According to the ancient authors of the Scriptures, there must be a connection between prosperity and Spirituality.”
Money is a neutral. It will not corrupt you—only your use of it will. The choice to use money for good is always available to you. It is the wealthy who set up charitable foundations, endow hospitals, establish scholarships, promote art, literature, theater, etc. Ted Turner donated one billion dollars to the United Nations. Bill and Melinda Gates funded a charitable foundation with more than twenty billion dollars. You can’t do things like that if you’re broke.
Examine your old beliefs. Are they facts—or just opinions? Are they refutable? Investigate. If they aren’t producing good things in your life, replace them with better thoughts.
