Move every dollar, diamond, mansion, and masterpiece to a planet without people.
What would they be worth?
Nothing.
That tells us where value truly begins.
I want to submit something simple yet thought-provoking.
It is something against which you can bounce your troubles, ambitions, and priorities to help keep life close to what is real.
It contains a few built-in PAUSE FOR CAUSE moments because stillness supports clear thinking. God loved them first. You are to follow
Consider this an anti-message to the nonsense being broadcast all day long—the noise that keeps us from becoming still enough to appreciate the natural beauty and miracle of life itself.
HERE IT IS
Imagine gathering everything commonly considered valuable:
Money.
Gold.
Jewelry.
Luxury automobiles.
Deeds to prime property.
Emeralds, rubies, diamonds, pearls, silk clothing—and, for the sake of keeping this brief, everything else carrying a price tag.
Now place it all on a distant planet where no people exist.
What would it be worth?
Nothing.
Without people, the gold would be another metal, the diamonds another collection of stones, the property deeds meaningless paper, and the automobiles useless objects with nowhere important to go.
That entire mountain of “wealth” would become debris.
Look at it.
PEOPLE
What is missing?
People.
People give objects their usefulness, price, purpose, history, and meaning.
Without people, possessions remain a big nothing.
The pursuit of material things for their sake alone is an illusion because the value of anything is not ultimately found outside the human being.
The greatest value has been brilliantly hidden inside us, where it can be accessed without a bank account, key, deed, or combination lock.
WORTHY NOTE
God has hidden pearls, diamonds, and treasure within every human being—and covered them with clay called the body.
Seek, mind, and mine that inner treasure first.
Then the other pursuits presenting themselves will have proportion and meaning.
Be rich within, and you will never be entirely poor without.
WHEREVER WE GO—THERE WE ARE
Life remains our most valuable yet underappreciated discovery, with Earth leading the way on the subject.
Suppose we discovered another planet similar to Earth.
The race would be on.
At first, it would be a magnificent experience filled with wonder, beauty, possibilities, and promises.
But if we carried the same selfishness, greed, carelessness, and conflict we practiced here, how long would it remain magnificent?
Wherever we go, there we are.
A new location cannot permanently repair an old mindset.
WORTHY NOTE
Remove the log—the obstruction—from your own eye so you can see more clearly.
A better person can be born from doing that.
See for yourself.
SHIPS PASSING IN THE NIGHT?
When you see another human being, what goes through your mind?
There are billions of people, yet no two are exactly alike.
Every person possesses an individual history, voice, mixture of experiences, fears, hopes, gifts, and possibilities.
That uniqueness should cause us to inquire, pause, and at least ponder.
Begin within your own little world.
Do you still marvel at the people closest to you—or have familiarity made them almost invisible?
They are your like kind.
Like you, they hurt.
Like you, they hope.
Like you, they want their presence to matter.
WE ARE ALL CULPRITS
We live upon a miracle called planet Earth, surrounded by more miracles than we could count.
Yet we also have war, poverty, crime, pollution, exploitation, and needless loss of life.
Where does the management error lie?
With the management personnel.
That would be you and me.
It is easy to blame governments, corporations, institutions, neighbors, strangers, or “those people.”
But mankind is made one person at a time.
Improvement must begin somewhere equally personal.
THE RACE FOR MORE
If we value possessions more than people, we cheapen the human experience.
Money is a tool.
Property is a tool.
Technology is a tool.
Success is a tool.
A tool can serve life, but life should never be reduced to serving the tool.
When acquiring more costs us our peace, character, relationships, health, compassion, or soul, the price has become greater than the value.
PAUSE FOR CAUSE
We spend much of life placing prices on things.
Perhaps we should spend more time recognizing the value of people.
A person may temporarily possess nothing and still carry wisdom, courage, faith, kindness, creativity, and love beyond calculation.
PEARLS INSIGHT
Things have prices.
People have value.
Confuse the two and life becomes poorer, regardless of how much money has been accumulated.
RICHIE SPEAKS
Our earthly experience is fragile and very brief.
Do not race through it while counting possessions and overlooking people.
Slow down.
Look at one another.
Savor and sip this simple adventure intimately.
That is abundant life.
That is life with meaning.
And when the final accounting is complete, the greatest treasures will not be the objects we owned.
They will be the lives we valued.
— Richie
Pearls for the Soul
when you feed the soul, you feed everything.
https://pearlsforthesoul.com
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