How Much is Enough?

If we have food and clothes,
that should be enough.
       —1 Timothy 6:8

Authors Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse-Five) and Joseph Heller (Catch-22) were guests at a high-dollar party at the palatial New York home of a billionaire host.

Vonnegut began to needle Heller. “Joe, how does it make you feel to know that today our host made more money than Catch-22 will earn in your lifetime?”

“I have something he’ll never have,” Heller replied.

“What on earth could that be?”

“Enough,” said Heller.

The desire for more keeps moving the goalposts.

How much is enough? Jesus told a story about a rich man who said he had enough loot to last him many years. God called him a fool, saying he would die this very night (Lk 12:16–20).

That’s a big contrast: “Many years”—“This very night.”

You’ll never enjoy what you have if all you
think about is what someone else has?

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