The Colour of Greed

Written by On Thursday, 09 January 2014 08:56

Q knew what greed looked like. She knew that silver devil all too well. She had seen it in her father and it did not take long for her to see its silver claws encasing her boyfriend’s heart.

As they sat there and as he spoke to this new Jezebel that was straight from the pits of hell, she couldn’t help but smile a mirthless smile. This was like all the other business meetings. He insisted that it was his idea to invest in a coal mine. Q wasn’t surprised. Jezebels are convincing.

She watched him with wonder. It amused her that he could not see himself. See the silver devil’s grasp tightening. See what his face showed so plainly. Want. All he ever did was want.

He really wanted. He wanted to be rich and he wanted it now. It was obvious how much he wanted money. He was just short of salivating as the Jezebel explained the expected returns. He wanted to seem influential and he wanted that real bad too. He wanted fame and prestige. He dressed the part and drove a fitting car. It wasn’t enough. Not yet. He wanted more. He really wanted.

Q had often told him to take his time getting rich. It’s better to let the investments grow slowly. Twenty years is not too long to wait for riches. Our fathers did it. There is no shame in humble beginnings. It was of no use. How badly he wanted money! Much more than he wanted Q.

The first time he made that easy fifty thousand in a land deal at his work place is the day the silver devil lured him in. Easy money is the most bewitching. Today they were having coffee with the sixth Jezebel – in a line of many - as they planned on how he would finance his coal mine project.

Q was amused. The want in her boyfriend was more than that of a desolate orphan. It was as though he had nothing. And the more he got the more his want grew. Had this Jezebel bewitched him? No. The Jezebel too was under a spell. She was a slave of the silver devil and he made her do horribly degrading things to maintain a way of life that had no future.

So he was going to get rich or die trying. Rich is not a finite figure. The more money he had the more he wanted to be rich. Q knew this meant he would die trying. He would die a poor man with more money than most rich people. The silver devil enslaved him and enjoyed watching his desire grow every time he made a little progress, but the silver devil is cruel master. The silver devil desires too. The silver devil desires death of its slaves.

The want in her boyfriend’s eyes was evident. That silver gleam. He wanted money but he wanted the Jezebel too. The Jezebel showed him where to sign. As he signed his name onto yet another loan, yet another enslavement, Q knew not to blame him, we’ve all got to serve somebody.

And Q knew not to blame herself for she too deserved pity. Greed, that silver devil, had his hooks in her too. She too wanted. She wanted love and she wanted it now. The scraps that she got were a poor substitute for love but the promise of commitment was always almost within reach. She too was greedy. She too would not wait for love. She too was a tired slave under some cruel spell that never let her leave the circus. She gave more, sacrificed more and tolerated way more than sanity and common sense allowed. Yet all she did was want more. And she too would die trying.

Q sighed as the Jezebel laughed with her boyfriend. She looked at her hands so she did not have to see that silver gleam in her boyfriend’s eyes; that familiar want. She squeezed a silver coin with her fingers as tight as she could. She only hurt herself.

Surely, the colour of greed is silver and the fruit of greed is hard and cold.

Revelation 3:17 You say, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.”But you do not realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in fire, so that you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so that you can see. 19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.

Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate one and love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Deuteronomy 30 See I set before you life and prosperity, death and destruction. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.

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