Working To Acquire More? We'll Never Acquire Enough
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin Articles
The story is told of a rich industrialist who was disturbed to find a fisherman reclining lazily on the deck of his boat. “Why aren’t you out there fishing?” he asked.
“Because I’ve caught enough fish for today,” said the fisherman.
“Why don’t you catch more fish than you need?” the rich man asked.
“What would I do with them?”
“You could earn more money,” came the impatient reply, “and buy a better boat so you could go deeper and catch more fish. You could purchase nylon nets, catch even more fish, and make more money. Soon you’d have a fleet of boats and be rich like me.”
The fisherman asked, “Then what would I do?”
“You could sit down and enjoy life,” said the industrialist.
“What do you think I’m doing now?” the fisherman replied as he looked peacefully out to the sea.
The above story illustrates an important truth. If we live only to accumulate material wealth, we’ll never acquire enough (Ecclesiastes 1:8; Proverbs 27:20). In fact, we’ll more than likely frantically work more and more and more until we finally collapse (or worse, have a stroke or heart attack).
Have we been working 70 or more hours a week? Are we refusing to take vacations? Beloved, our life is worth far more than any possessions we might accumulate (Matthew 16:24-26; cf. Luke 12:13-21).
Rather, let’s learn to trust more fully in the God who has richly given us “all things to enjoy” (Proverbs 3:5-6; Matthew 6:24-33; 1 Timothy 6:17).