Obviously, the story of the widow’s mite comes to mind related to the question. To the question of the burden of riches, I’d respond by saying that I’m not sure it’s a burden exactly. The scripture is clear, however, that there are high expectations placed by God on the wealthy. The gift of wealth is given to some with an expectation and a purpose: that it be used to benefit those with less.

And, this perspective seems to be independent of the religious base that individuals happen to have. After all, the great religions ALL teach that caring for the poor and needy is a critical part of a person’s faith. The recent American innovation that teaches that God wants His people to be wealthy in worldly terms is unique in history…and I happen to think it is a misuse of scripture and a violation of basic historical Christianity.

`You don’t have to worry, cause you have no money. People on the river are happy to give.’ — Creedence Clearwater Rivival. If CCR says so, it’s gotta be true.

The Bible quote about riches a burden from the link is: { Matthew 19:16, 21-26 } When a man of some means came to Jesus with this crucial question: “Good Master, what must I do to have eternal life and happiness?
[ Jesus told him that he must begin by obeying the ten commandments. But, then...]
“If you want to be perfect, go and sell everything you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” But when the young man heard this, he went away sadly, for he was very rich.

If riches keep you from getting to Heaven they seem to be a very big burden.

Khalid, I’m very familiar with the text you cited. There are numerous other texts in both the Old and New testaments that talk about the right use of wealth. The question seems to me to be, “what are you doing with your wealth?”

Sadly, it seems, that there are many who see wealth as a right and a privilege, and that it’s proper use is to be stored up or used frivolously.

There is another way that, in our time, I’d consider wealth to be a burden. If someone accumulates great wealth, and then announces to the world that they are going to start giving it away (think Bill Gates), the number of crooks, shysters, and shady characters that come out of the woodwork with their hands out is incredible. Sorting them out would be a real headache, I would think.

…………..from my experience, wealth is only good for three things. Wealth gives me freedom to do what I want, when I want to. Wealth means I don’t have to worry myself about money, and it gives me the means to help out family and others from time to time….thats it.

Wealth does not buy happiness and a very common trap of good fortune is to purchase many material things (as a display of financial status), which in the end only burdens one with having to become a servant to care for those things.

Crashtest… Money isn’t wealth, though. It’s only lets you `tap’ wealth.

Correction: “It only lets you `tap’ wealth.”

Crashtest… Sorry. I just read your post again. I misinterpreted what you wrote.

Thanks for sharing the wonderful story. I tend to not like these “who is more….” topics, especially in the realm of generosity and/or charity. The TYPE of topic tends to be based in someone wanting to feel superior to another, which shouldn’t–and usually isn’t–the purpose of charity.

I’ve seen similar topics on whether liberals or conservatives are “more charitable”. P’shaw….

That said, I think one can gain a certain “been there, done that, and sold my t-shirt for a sandwich” brotherhood among those who have struggled or are struggling. In that sense, maybe the “poor” tend to be the more rich of heart.

hs,
Many years ago I wanted to write an article on charity from a muslim perspective with the title (sorry Suzyjax) ‘Who is a Greater Muslim, William, Warren or Walid? Walid being Prince Walid of Saudi Arabia, a self made billionaire, like Warren Buffet and William Gates. At that time both Bill and Warren had already pledged to give most of their wealth away. But Bill and Warren are exceptions. There is a book titled ‘Richistan’ written by a Wall Street Journal Editor about the lifestyles of the self made rich (minimum net worth $10M). It is interesting but for our purposes the observations on charity were illuminating. As a group these people did not give much to charity and also nearly all of them deeply resented Bill and Warren publically announcing that they were giving their money away as they felt it put pressure on them (’sure if you have that many billions it is easy to give but I have only $100 million and why am I being expected to give’).

To the second point. Yes it is not easy to give money away. And it takes a lot of attempts (try try try again) before one starts to get it right. You give money and instead of it being helpful to a person, it destroys them. You give money to someone and you are not even looking for gratitude but what you get is resentment and scorn…. and it does not help the person. It takes a lot of practice to give it away in a manner that it actually benefit the person or institution. But, if the intention is to please God, then one must keep trying and eventually we can give it away and have positive results. Ofcourse Warren Buffet took the easy way out :). He told Bill, you handle giving it away!