Over the weekend, the PGA Tour had a golf tournament in Houston. It was the Shell Houston Open. The winner was a player who had never won before, who goes by the name of Johnson Wagner. If you think Johnson is a strange first name, actually, it’s his middle name. His first name is Montford. I’m not sure what his parents were thinking of.
Anyway, he got the first win of his PGA career this week. For his efforts he won $1,008,000. That’s one million, eight thousand dollars. Not a bad paycheck for playing four rounds of golf.
His win took him from 193rd on the money list for 2008 to 19th. Up till this week, he had “only” won about $40,000 this year. He was way down the bottom of the list.
When a person is thinking of the money pro golfers make, $40,000 isn’t much money compared to the fact that number one on the list is at $3.6 million already. By the end of the year, the number one will probably be pushing $10 million.
So, how about you? Have you “only” made $40,000 this year so far? Multiply that out and it would be about $120,000 for the year. Do you think you could make it on that? There are lots of people who would say they couldn’t live on only 120 grand. How about it, would you like to try? I’m willing to give it a go to see if I could make it.
The title I gave to this entry today is: It must all be relative. With the rising cost of living, it is harder and harder for many people to live. And, yet, we still have an amazing lifestyle here in the good old USA. Some think it’s poverty to only have 40 channels on cable. Many young people think it cruel if they don’t have their own cell phone. Others can’t believe that anyone still uses dial-up internet connection. And, of course, what they wear must come from the right line of designer clothes.
I don’t know for sure, since I’ve never been there, but I have a sneaking suspicion that weight loss clinics are not a big business in India or Sudan. I don’t think the most important issue for people in North Korea or Cuba is that their car has GPS and a port to plug in their I-pod. It all must be relative.
It is easy to be envious of the material success of others. It’s easy to think that they have it all made and no problems. Tiger Woods earns about $2 Million PER WEEK from all his ventures. This last off season the Twins signed one of their stars to an $80 million contract. Maria Carey has now passed Elvis for the number of number-one hit singles. It seems like they have it all made. Yes, it’s nice to not have money worries, but . . .
Compared to some, you are in poverty. Compared to others, you are rich. It’s all relative. We really need to think about that.
One more thing to chew on, no amount of money will purchase your forgiveness of sins or an eternal home in heave. That only comes by receiving God’s free gift. When you know you have received God’s gift of eternal life and have an eternal home promised to you, you really ARE rich.
