There was a man who worked as a building contractor in a big construction company. He was always entrusted big building projects by his boss. After several years of service, his boss informed him that there were just few months for his retirement so entrusted him with one last assignment.
“I wish you to build a very large house no matter what the cost is”. Consenting to the request, the contractor went home. He thought to himself “Now that I have just few months left and this is the last project, let me fleece my boss and make money from this project.”
When he was given all the money he needed, he used the cheapest and sub-standard cement, bricks, paint, door and window fixtures, electrical fittings. He built a house that was not going to last long. He then handed over the keys to his boss. His boss congratulated him. After pausing a while he said “Look you have served my company all these years and in thankfulness, I thought the best thing I could do was spend as much money to give you a beautiful house where you and your family can live in”.
Saying this, the boss returned the house keys to him. With tears in his eyes and filled with guilt, he knelt down before his boss and confessed his dishonesty.
We reap what we sow. Urging us to be faithful and honest in whatever we do, Jesus says “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own (Luke16:10-12). Spiritual writer Amy Carmichael puts its crisply “A little thing is a little thing. But faithfulness in a little thing is a great thing.”
The Bible teaches us:”keep yourselves free from love of money, and be content with what you have” (Hebrews13:5).
If you want to make someone happy, don’t give him more possessions. Take away his desires. A happy man is one who wants what he has. An unhappy man gets what he wants but never stops wanting.
The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates believed that if you are truly wise you will not be obsessed with possessions. Practicing what he preached to an extreme, he even refused to wear shoes. Socrates loved to visit the market place and gaze at the things sold there.
“I love to go there and discover how happy I am without those things,” he said.
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