All the Gold I can Carry

The Wild West Museum is located in Deadwood, South Dakota. Among the many displays from the old west there is an inscription left by a stranded prospector.

"I lost my gun. I lost my horse. I am out of food. The Indians are after me. But I've got all the gold that I can carry!"

While we may applaud the positive attitude of our miner friend, I am still struck by the priorities that riches promotes. You can't eat gold and it won't get you out of the mountains when Indians are after you. But, hey, I've got all I can hold on to.

This story reminds me of a movie I once saw that was based on fact. In it, a group of hikers find the body of a hijacker and his bag of ransom money. Their elation at the windfall they have found soon disappears in a blinding snowstorm. They divide the money and set off in pairs to walk to safety. In the end, one pair saves themselves by burning the money to keep warm. But, the other two froze to death rather than part with their booty.

Materialism can do that to people. It can lead them to think that they really have something when they are destitute for more important things. It can also make people cold and cynical toward their fellow man thinking only in terms of what rather than who. There is something about being human that "things" cannot satisfy. Material goods cannot always meet the needs of another human being. There is a inward longing of the spirit that seeks the intangible of connection with another human being. There is an inward longing of the spirit that seeks the intangible of connection with another human spirit and with the Spirit of God.

As we travel through life we accumulate and accomplish. Yet, these are mostly of this world. But, as we near the end of our days those things may become hollow if we have not nurtured that part within us that is most like God. Jesus once told of a prosperous landowner who found satisfaction in what he had accumulated in his barns. But he left this world and his goods went to someone else. There is more to being human than things of this world. God teaches this to His people.
It is genuine tragedy to see someone come to the end of their time on earth devoid of having connected with others: people who have sought the things of the world and have done little to feed their own spirit or that of others. "But, I have all the gold I can carry!"

"For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" Matthew 16:26

Charles Hill
Church of Christ
Chambersburg, PA