Living Well but Not Successfully

In 1923, a group of the world’s wealthiest men met in Chicago’s Edgewater Beach Hotel on the shores of Lake Michigan to discuss the economic future of America. The group include the president of the largest independent steel company, the president of the largest utility company, the president of the largest gas company, the president of the New York Stock Exchange, a member of the U.S. president’s cabinet, and the wealthiest investor on Wall Street.

If success means position, power, influence, money, and reputation, this certainly was a gathering the world’s most successful men. But were these men really successful? Substituting position, power, and financial success in place of Jesus Christ cannot bring happiness.

The president of the largest independent steel company had to live on borrowed money the last five years of his life, and he died bankrupt. The president of the largest utility company died a fugitive from justice, penniless in a foreign land. The president of the largest gas company went insane. The president of the New York Stock Exchange was judge guilty of fraud and spent the rest of his life in prison. The member of the president’s cabinet was sentenced to prison and eventually pardoned to die at home. The wealthiest investor on Wall Street died of suicide.

Each of these men achieved status, fame, and fortune but they were all spiritually necked.

–Mark Finley, Signs of the Times, February 2008, 59.