Connections Archive
Devotional: Money and happiness
22 February 2010
Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church
Actor and model Bo Derek once said, "Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping." I think she was joking. I hope she was joking.
There are too many stories of sad lives among those with wealth to say that money equals happiness. The Casey Johnson story is a recent example.
Casey died of severe insulin deficiency in January this year. Thirty years old, she was found dead in a run-down, rented, West Hollywood house where the gas and electricity had been cut off, and rats ran around the empty swimming pool.
Casey was born into a family worth an estimated USD180 billion. She was the great-great-granddaughter of Robert Wood Johnson, who helped found the Johnson & Johnson empire.
"I have so much stuff that, you know, it's almost embarrassing," she once said. "I got my first Chanel bag at 12, and a $17,000 gold Cartier watch when I was 15."
She referred to her wealth as a "golden handcuff" and complained that there was "nothing left to want."
She may have had the money, but her personal life was a disaster. She was plagued by feelings of personal failure, alcohol and drug dependence, and was estranged from her family.
Casey once said her "stupidest mistake" was turning down a role on the reality television show, The Simple Life, with friend Paris Hilton. But it was much more than this that took this billionaire from the home in east side Manhattan, New York, to the place of her death in West Hollywood.
Money does not equal happiness.
We know it. We have ample proof. It's obvious.
So why did Jesus spend more time in his Sermon on the Mount talking about money and possessions than any other topic?
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