Dennis Abernathy

Christina Onassis, the daughter of the famous millionaire Aristotle Onassis, is reported to have said: “Happiness is not based on money and the greatest proof of that is our family.” Her life was indeed one tragedy after another. She died at the age of 37 and her stepsister said the following about her: “She had houses all over the world, but she never really had a home. She was one of those people who would never be happy.”

It is easy for average people like us to forget that money cannot buy real happiness. Because we are sometimes troubled and unhappy because of money problems, we may think having all the money we could spend would insure happiness. That is, we might think that until we reflect on the unhappy lives of some notably rich people.

Think, for example, of some of those rich movie stars who have taken their own lives, and I don’t mean by accidental drug overdoses! The list of notably well-off stars who deliberately killed themselves is a long one. Money bought them the abundance of material things, but it didn’t bring them happiness. Yes, it’s true. Even people who have no interest in God have often eventually realized that “real happiness is not based on money and what it will buy.”

1 Tim. 6: 9-10 says: “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” Remember that Jesus, the Son of God said in Luke 12: 15, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”

Our real concern should be “eternal” happiness. If it were even possible for one to have and hold the wealth of the entire world would that be worth losing one’s soul? Listen to Jesus again. “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16: 26).

“Not all earth’s gold and silver can make a sinner whole;

What shall it profit thee, o man, If thou should’st lose thy soul?

The heaping up of riches to many seems life’s goal

But in the eager rush for wealth, forgotten is the soul.

This solemn question answer; is worldly gain thy goal?

Can fleeting riches be compared to an immortal soul?

The real measure of our life is not how much money we have to spend, nor how much we leave behind when our life is spent. There’s something more basic to happiness than money. Think on these things.