Love It!

Do you know Carlos Helu? He lives in Mexico City, Mexico, and is, according to Forbes Magazine,  the richest man in the World. With over $60 billion in assets, he is not struggling with milk money.

Along with Warren Buffett and Larry Ellison, Carlos lost $700 million last Thursday; just a bad day in the stock market. Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, just bought a Hawaiian Island, Lanai (no, he did not just visit the island, he bought the island).

I wonder at what point in life, or at what level of wealth, one begins to love money? Does it happen at the billion dollar level, or the million dollar level? Could it be that it starts with that first dollar and continues to grow with each increasing amount?

The Scripture teaches us that lovers of money are first of all lovers of self. When we love ourselves more than we llove God and others, we have no difficult falling into a “way of life” that focuses on “gain” from a financial perspective. When Paul told Timothy, in that first letter to the young Pastor, “the llove of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains,” (1 Timothy 6:10) he was warning of the progression of self-llove that leads to a multitude of evils in life (see 2 Timothy 3:1-5).

And to think – if I lost $700 million in the stock market, I would be $699,999,997.00 in the red. Glad I don’t llove the stuff.