Happiness Quotient <> Bank Balance

I found these laying around in a file on my PC.

Where is happiness found? John Rockefeller, a Christian millionaire said, “I have made many millions, but they brought me no happiness. I would barter them all for the days I sat on an office stool in Cleveland and counted myself rich on three dollars a week.”

W.H. Vanderbilt said, “The care of 200 million dollars is too great a load for any brain or back to bear. It is enough to kill anyone. There is no pleasure in it.”

John Jacob Astor left five million, but had been a martyr to dyspepsia and melancholy. He said, “I am the most miserable man on earth.”

Henry Ford, the automobile king, said, “Work is the only pleasure. It is only work that keeps me alive and makes life worth living. I was happier when doing a mechanic’s job.”

Andrew Carnegie, the multi-millionaire, said, “Millionaires seldom smile.”

A. Naismith as quoted by Paul Lee Tan #3546

Regarding the title of this post, “<>” means “does not equal.”

Fear, Finals, SATs, and Trust…

No one gets exemption from hardship on planet Earth. How we receive it hinges on whether we believe in an alternative reality that transcends the one we know so well. The Bible never minimizes hardship or unfairness– witness books like Job, Psalms, and Lamentations. It simply asks us to withhold final judgment until all the evidence is in.

‘Do not be afraid’ is the most frequent command in the Bible…. We have a thousand fears: mammograms and prostate tests, our children’s future as well as their present, retirement funds, job security, crime. We fear not getting the job we want or the lover we desire, and if we have them we fear their loss. In the face of such everyday fear, Jesus points to a lily, or a sparrow, and calmly says, Trust. Seek first the kingdom of heaven.

~Philip Yancey in Rumours of Another World, p. 217

Staying Awake to God’s Presence

We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito. And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate. The real labour is to remember, to attend. In fact, to come awake. Still more, to remain awake.

~C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer