Avarice Infests Our Imperfect World

Avarice Infests Our Imperfect World

If you see oppression of the poor and perversion of justice and righteousness in the province, don’t be astonished at the situation, because one official protects another official, and higher officials [protect] them. The profit from the land is taken by all; the king is served by the field. The one who loves money is never satisfied with money, and whoever loves wealth [is] never [satisfied] with income. This too is futile. When good things increase, the ones who consume them multiply; what, then, is the profit to the owner, except to gaze at them with his eyes? The sleep of the worker is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich permits him no sleep. Eccl 5:8-12 (HCSB)

This passage affirms a relevant reality about life. Since the beginning of time, avarice has insatiably devoured wealth. In America today, avarice thrives throughout all levels of society. Our economy continues to teeter on the brink of collapse because avarice once tasted hooks the soul of men like other irresistible opiate. It spawns voracious corporate investment firms and financial institutions devouring one another while seducing everyday Americans with tantalizing money schemes. The result: Americans pretend to be wealthier than their income can afford. Their generous lines of credit entrap them with a false sense of wealth. However, there comes a time when everyone discovers they cannot even pay their monthly interest debt. Then Americans wake in the midst of the nightmare they allowed themselves to embrace only to realize too late that they bit into the shiny apple that blinded them from the greed of the corporate world sapping America dry, raking the wealth of our country into their pockets. During these nebulous times, the wealthy get wealthier while average Americans find they are deeper in debt and fearing the future.

As if America did not learn the lessons of less than a decade ago, new corrupt and irresponsible credit schemes are creeping back, promising once again that everyone should be able to invest in homes of their dreams; owning real estate is an American right. Add to that fever, television networks broadcast shows documenting young couples buying fixer-upper homes, investing in their makeover because their new home will be worth more than they invested when they decide to resell. No one mentions that like before, the future housing market offers no guarantees. The real benefactors are the contractors, home supply retailers, real estate agents, and bankers. If they all are getting their fair share, what is the home buyer left with? Avarice affects us all with blatant, blinding greed. Whether the stock market or the housing market, all market bubbles bust. The contractors, home supply retailers, real estate agents, and bankers have already pocketed their profit while the young couple is left trapped in monthly debts for a dream home that feels more like a financial millstone around their necks.

The rich continue to get richer, while the average American suffers. Yet, is this a new phenomenon? No not at all? We could address the same with school loans weighing down graduates while the colleges grow in wealth because they increase their tuition and fees while they convince unsuspecting, easily duped new students of the value of earning their degree at their school.

Throughout history, as this biblical passage relates, the powerful have always benefited from the redistribution of wealth. The hierarchy of power makes certain that the wealth of the people beneath them flows upward, not downward. The greatest financial pyramid schemes that exist legally are designed to squeeze the wealth from the land by taking advantage of the avarice infestation that exists within all men who fail to stop and evaluate what is truly important in life. This reality allows the rich to sleep at night knowing they will continue to prosper while the average person tosses and turns in his bed, unable to sleep because they fear they will wake up unable to hold onto what little bit they have managed to grasp onto.

When we stop and seek God’s will, ways, and wisdom on this matter, what does God have to say? The pursuit of wealth is its own god. No one can serve both their desire for wealth and their relationship with God. Avarice will always infest this world, but there is a better way to live free from its ill-affects while we dwell in this world. Choose wisely whom you will serve and revere first and foremost.

Coach

www.coachbrown.org

Words of Wisdom #230-14EC