03.14.03

Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished, but he who gathers by labor will increase. - Proverbs 13:11.

When I was about five or six years old I was on a rare shopping trip with my mother. We were in a clothing store (Anthony’s) when I saw a $20.00 bill on the floor. I bent down to pick it up and just as my fingers touched the bill a woman stomped on it with her shoe. She jerked it out of my hand waved it briefly in the air saying, “did anyone lose this,” and then she hurriedly left the store before anyone could respond.

Unlike the woman I remember from my childhood there are some really honest people in North Dakota. In Fargo, North Dakota an ATM machine delivered some extra cash to the ATM customers. The cold weather caused the machine’s door to open for some customers and not to open for others. Some customers received no money but those following them received the money they wanted plus the money intended for the previous customer. Marietta Rasmussen a bank supervisor said, “It was like being in Las Vegas without all the lights and whistles.” All three customers who received extra money reported the error and returned the money.

Many of us operate not according to honesty but according to the principle of “what we can get away with.” Even if those good-hearted people in North Dakota had decided to keep the extra money it is unlikely that they would have been able to keep it. Why? Because nearly every ATM has a security camera and those films would have been reviewed until the source of the loss of funds was found.

But there is another group of people who go by the principle of “I‘m stronger than you.” If they are stronger and more forceful than you they will take whatever they can get. My son was the victim of this on the night before his wedding when he was robbed at gunpoint at an ATM in Dallas (many years ago now). The fact is that there are many, many more people willing to steal, deceive, cheat, lie, and rob than there are who as the apostle Paul, “…always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men (Acts 24:16).”

As I was preparing this devotional I discovered that I belong to the “neglected or forgotten to take care of something” group. Since I have been reminded of this responsibility I must either take care of it or I will quickly slide into the “what I can get away with group.” I don’t know which group you fall into but God does and it may be that He has reminded you, as He did me, through this devotional.

Let us strive to be obedient to our Lord in all things and keep our consciences clear before God and men.