One of the things that distresses me the most about many of the current success gurus is their emphasis on one thing: Money. To them it’s impossible to be a success without having lots of money. Many of them don’t even try to deny it but promote it on a daily basis. To them, money has become their God and they worship it with every word they speak.

Now mind you they will deny this, at least most of them will, and say that the reason they have money is because they have been blessed by God because of following universal laws and if you follow them and pay them lots of money they will show you this secret. Now I’m a firm believer in universal laws but it doesn’t take much to see that just because someone is following universal laws, they are not always instantly blessed with the riches of the earth.

Also, we are also not entirely free from the actions of others. Stuff happens. People drive drunk and hit others. People make stupid choices and we may be the recipient of that decision. Diseases ravage the great and the small. Things don’t always work out and trying and failing and trying again are an integral part of the learning process of life. There must be opposition in all things in order to grow and develop. There is no easy path to success or happiness except to stay on the straight and narrow path and avoid all the distractions.

I know I’ll have lots of critics on the subject and many will disagree with me, even somewhat vehemently. But the Scriptures I read and the experiences of life teaches me that it is not wise to focus solely on money as the measure of your success.

Almost every married couple I know of that has become divorced, with very few exceptions, are all in the more well-off financial categories of the world. Something happens to a person when they get lots of money. They build themselves up and think that they are greater, stronger, better looking, more capable, etc. than the next guy. Power foes to their heads. When they get puffed up in such a fashion, their ego and pride become an attraction to many people who lack such a thing. It is been said that money and success is one of the greatest aphrodisiacs in the world. It also has proven many a downfall.

So they either chase, or are chased by, someone of the opposite sex and it results in disaster. I know a couple that were divorced for a time and they are very well off. She has become one of the snootiest people I’ve ever met, but a year away from her husband made her depressed and it was the money that brought them back together. Now she can spend to her hearts content and return to her life of pride and glamour.

I could go on and on stories like this but it is rather depressing. The main focus I want to instill today is the need to keep an eternal perspective on who we are, where we came from, why were here, and where we’re going after we die. Few religions and philosophies of the world really understand these principles and I’m here to tell you that most of the success gurus don’t really know the answer to these questions either. Oh, they may proclaim some rather strange and powerful doctrine, but it is always attached to how much money you have to pay for access to their advice.

Money has quite an appeal and allure for most people. Without a doubt, the more money you have, the more things you can purchase. The more places you can go. The more power you can have and in many cases, the more respect you can gain. People always look up to successful individuals who have garnered lots of money. Sometimes even a casual glance at the rest of their personal lives reveal a life of sacrificing other things to obtain this money. Many have sacrificed their families and relationships. Many have sacrificed personal values in order to obtain it. Many have literally sold their souls for more of it.

It’s been said that the love of money is the root of all evil. It’s also been said that the lack of money is the root of all evil. Neither of these statements are true in an absolute sense but they are true in a relative sense. Both can be evil but there are more causes than just peoples view of money for the evil in the world today. Christ taught in the New Testament many powerful teachings that these success gurus conveniently ignore. If they teach these things then they have no justification for the enormous sums they ask of their audience.

So if they aren’t teaching Christ’s teachings, whose teachings are they preaching? If they twist and deny his words in order to conveniently fit their own personal beliefs, whose beliefs are they really?

You’re probably asking yourself, “Kelly, where in the world are you going with this? How can you be an inspirational speaker and follow this line of reasoning?”

For me it is easy. Now don’t get me wrong, I love having money as long as I have earned it honestly and not lost my soul in the process. Money is not my God. Money is not even the focus of my work or desires. The money is a reward for serving others, but if I seek it, it eludes me. If I seek to serve and better mankind it magically finds me and as long as I don’t concentrate on how much I have, how much I want, or where I’m going to get the next batch of it, it will continue to flow to me as long as I keep an eternal perspective in mind.

But even if I lose it all tomorrow, it will not matter because I know things from an eternal perspective.

I guarantee you, there is no one in the world that has thought more about the subject than I have. Now I know that’s a bold statement but I promise you that that is the truth. The subject has occupied much of my thinking for most of my 50+ years of life. I have changed positions in that thinking many times from the readings of others and experimented in all sorts of attempts to increase my wealth or even avoid it altogether. But years of seasoning and experience has mellowed my beliefs and focused my intentions.

As soon as someone focuses all their energies on money, they’re on the wrong trail. How can I say this when corporations must always look at the bottom line? The answer is easy: The bottom line reveals whether they are either focused on their mission and goal in life, or they are not. The bottom line, the profits at the end of the day, the value of the company to their stockholders, the number of satisfied and returning customers, the attitude of the employees towards the leaders, the relationships built between vendors and suppliers, etc. are all related to the bottom line.

If I proclaim myself as a inspirational speaker but don’t promise you that I will make your company wealthy and rich, it is highly unlikely that I will have very many people wanting me to come speak at their convention. They want somebody to show how they can become rich. They want someone to show the easy path towards financial success. They want Rah Rah, and Hoopla and the Law of Attraction!

You see that’s the appeal that most people look for when talking about money. We are basically lazy and want to achieve things the easy way. The advertisers dream of offering something for nothing, or almost nothing, is a powerful weapon. It consumes most of what modern advertising is all about. Yet look how many people have been snookered into handing over their lifes fortune to make more. Bernie Madoff now sits in a 10′ x 10′ concrete mansion with several others of his fellow crooks. He may be an extreme example but many people will sell their souls for far less money.

Ethics and integrity are some of the most valued and prized possessions in today’s business world because they are so rare. I recently watched a 60 Minutes interview of a man who claimed he had developed stem cell cures for some of the world’s deadliest diseases: Lou Gehrig syndrome, multiple sclerosis, autism, etc. Yet even when they caught him on camera in a lie he still proclaimed to these people that he could cure them and even tried to close the sale after the reporter had left! Usually you see the people confronted scurrying away from the cameras, but this was the first time I’ve ever seen where the reporter was the first to leave.

One of the most important realities that people must realize is that this life is not the end of their life. We are eternal beings. We lived with God before we were born and we are placed here on this earth to be tried and tested to see if we would do the right thing, the things He commands us to do. After we die, because of the resurrection that was made possible because of Jesus Christ, we live again forever in some eternal standing. But the decisions we make in this life will have a dramatic impact upon just what that eternal standing is like. There is much more than just a Heaven and a Hell. Logic alone shows us that.

If we have sought to live our days in the basest of desires, only looking out for ourselves and the pleasures of this world, we will not receive the same eternal reward as those who have helped improve the world and lift others up. God is a God of justice. Nobody wants to focus on that and they all want to focus on him being a God of mercy. But mercy cannot rob justice. Those who have hurt, maimed, killed, stolen from, and negatively affected other individuals will feel the eternal consequences of that action if they do not repent. There is Eternal Justice for everyone, whether the want to believe it or not.

Honesty matters. Integrity counts. Love is eternal. Work has value. Education stays with you after you die. All the money you earn stays here.

You are so much more than you probably realize. You are an infinite being and have an eternal nature and destiny. You may not be able to realize all of that power now, but depending on how you live your life, you might be able to in the next life.

I will have more to say on this later. I could go on for a long time on this one!

Related Websites