By ERLE B. RATERTA
What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? (Matthew 16:26)
NEW YORK — I never entertained the idea of amassing great wealth. I dreamed early in life, though, that I would retire as a millionaire.
But by force of circumstance, I went into early retirement, and my first million till now remains elusive.
I just turned 60, and the dream no doubt is now beyond my reach. But what do I need a million for – to buy a house, a new car, travel perhaps, or give some to charity?
It may sound like a bunch of sour grapes, but who needs to own a house when you can rent without losing sleep over taxes and the mortgage?
Who needs a new car when the one you have still runs, and allows you to move around just fine? And who needs to give a portion of one’s savings to charity when a cup of cold water given to a thirsty brother as an act of love will come back to you as a blessing?
Certainly, there’s nothing wrong with working to gain a million or maybe more. The ability to work or engage in business is a blessing. “It is a gift from God to be able to . . . experience the good that comes from every kind of hard work.” (Ecclesiastes 3:13)
However, if we devote everything that we are to our work, day in and day out, to the point of utter exhaustion in pursuit of the dollar, or the praise of men, then perhaps, work becomes “meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”
I’m not the kind who dares to scale Mount Everest, or explore the deeps of the Marianas, or make it big at Wall Street. That’s reserved for special kinds of people.
I’m happy and content with what’s before me – the ordinary, the attainable. I, too, had dreams, and many of them, by the will of God, came to pass.
At 60, retired from a legal career, and with scars of laryngectomy on my body, I can look back to the past 60 years of my life, and honestly say, by the grace of God in Christ Jesus, all is well with my soul.
