HCLM BLOG

Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake Energy was the best-compensated CEO of 2008 at $112 million. This according to an article in USA Today Monday May 4,2009.

The company did not want to look bad in these economic times so his increase was nominal, however they did buy his collection of historical maps, books, paintings and photos, artwork that was on the walls in the administrative building. The purchase price for these was $12.2 million! The board said that they got a bargain.

The article listed the ten highest pay packages for CEOs. The number ten CEO was James Dimon of J.P. Morgan Chase (they have been in the news) who made $35.7 million. Many of these men got large increases even while their companies were going down. As we watch the jobless rate and the stock market it seems hard to take.

We had a member 15 years ago who was offered a job in Chicago for $1,000,000.00 a year, when I asked if he planned to take it he said no! I asked why and he said that there is nothing that he could do that would be worth $1 million, "no person should be paid $1 million."

It would seem that we have lost all perspective when athletes and others make so very much money. One wonders what you would do with that much money? One of the wealthiest men in the world said that money is simply the way that we keep score! He went on to say that he does not need any more money but that is how he measures his worth in our society.

As followers of Christ that has got to make us think. Today our church family lost an older gentleman who once owned a very profitable company and he was worth a great deal. When he gets to heaven I would have to believe that his worth is not going to be counted in $$$!

The hard part for us as believers is to figure out just how much of a role money, our net worth and salaries should play in our plans for this life. The temptation is to do like the early Christians of Acts and sell all that we have and live together as children of the same heavenly father. But at the same time we know that we are expected to be "Good Stewards" of all that the Lord gives us in this life.

The Apostle Paul once said "I have learned to be content, whether I have much or very little". I think that gives us a hint of how we are to live, we need to remember that our salary and even our wealth are only a PART of our life they are not our life. Whether I have a great deal of wealth or whether I am poor I am too live for the Lord. My life will be measured by my closeness to the Lord, not my closeness to my money!

So in these unusual times we need to show the world that we do not measure our worth by the money that we make but by the difference that we make.

In Christ,
Pastor Paul