To Enrich You

Bill decided to take a walk through the city. It had been a long time since he had allowed himself such a luxury. Leaving his Rolls-Royce at one of his villas, Bill changed into a sports suit and confidently headed to the neighborhood of his childhood, hoping to meet some of his school friends. Many years had passed since the last school bell, and during this time Bill had managed to establish a business with billion-dollar profits and set up numerous subsidiary enterprises across the country.

Passing by a supermarket, Bill noticed a man rummaging through a trash bin, taking various items and placing them in his basket. In this homeless man, our billionaire recognized his classmate Tim and approached to greet him. They hugged. Tim broke into a smile and decided to treat his old friend, inviting him home. Bill agreed, trying to understand what this would look like. They went to the city's outskirts near a garbage dump, and upon reaching the trash pile, Tim left his cart and invited Bill to follow him. They carefully moved from heap to heap and finally arrived at a strange structure made of furniture boards and cardboard, wrapped in plastic. Inside this house was quite spacious, with old kitchen furniture and many shelves cluttered with various things. Tim invited Bill to sit at the table and began his life story.

It turned out that after college, Tim had started a family, but ten years later his wife divorced him, taking all the property, leaving him on the street with debts and unpaid loans. These new problems and worries broke Tim, and he went wherever his eyes would lead him, met local homeless people, and found peace in their company.

Over time, Tim became the "king of the dump," using his professional knowledge to organize the life of all the homeless living at the city's landfill. He studied the schedule of incoming garbage trucks and what assortment they brought at different times. He found buyers for colored metals and valuable items in exchange for necessary medications and alcohol. He knew when expired products were delivered and skillfully distributed them among the dump's inhabitants.

Bill listened to his classmate's enthusiastic stories and then asked, "Wouldn't you like to have a company with an annual turnover of several million?" To which he received a reply that his friend was already very rich, had become wealthy, and needed nothing. Tim began showing his "treasures," pulling out various devices and appliances from boxes, opening cabinets and boasting about how much clothing he had for any weather. Although the house had no electricity, the homemade stove could burn combustible garbage for cooking and heating.

Life on the dump was arranged with maximum convenience. Drinking water was brought by metal scrap buyers, and containers for collecting rainwater were invented for showering and dishwashing.

Tim opened his food storage and began generously treating his friend with various expired delicacies, telling him that many dump inhabitants suffered from overeating and obesity.

Bill looked warily at the offered treats and asked Tim if he would like to have dinner with him in Bill's restaurant every evening. To this, the man just laughed, declaring that he had an excellent kitchen that no restaurant could compare with.

Bill cautiously said, "Tim, you don't even know how unhappy and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked you are. I advise you to contact me, and I will help you enter high society and reach knowledge peaks you never even dreamed of. In exchange for your junk, I will give you true wealth and better clothing, and you will become very wise in business. My teachers will reveal to you the secret of money, and you will gain access to true treasures and incredible resources. I will pay all your past debts and give you enough funds to start your own business and prosper in it. We will enter into eternal trade relations where we will mutually enrich each other."

Tim looked at his friend with regret, sadly smiling: "Bill, do you even understand who I am? I am the king of the dump!!! All the homeless in this city are under my command! If I need something, I don't even have to leave home, and everything will be brought to me, they will carry me in their arms and serve all my needs! And you offer me some fairy tales that I should spend my precious time on? Life is too short to enter into trade with you and spend the most valuable thing I have. And my clothes, though dirty, connect me with the past and warm my soul with memories of past battles. And if you, Bill, become very bad in your business, the doors of my house are always open to you. I'll give you the best spot on the dump and help you build your house."

Bill replied, "Tim, if you accept my advice, everything will change for you. You'll become a winner in all tenders, and I'll give you a place at the business forum next to me, and you'll receive the same power as I have, becoming my partner. Tim, you can't even imagine who I am and what heights you could reach in our trade relations. You can only find garbage on your dump, but I advise you to buy true wealth from me, which is valued both on your dump and in the world where I live. The new clothing you'll acquire from me will speak of your special status, and everyone will recognize that you are my friend, that you are in a special relationship with me. Your eyes now see no further than your dump, but believe me, you'll become sighted and able to distinguish garbage from true gold. You'll remember your current life with horror, and you'll be ashamed of what you were. And I personally will come to visit you every evening to have dinner with you in your new beautiful home and discuss further steps in our joint trade."

Tim listened carefully, trying to understand how credible Bill's offer looked. He looked at the walls of his house, his comfortable furniture, his "treasures" accumulated over many years, which he already had in abundance, and could not imagine how to part with all this for some abstract dream that his friend presented as reality. Bill spoke so convincingly, even if he didn't look like a billionaire. What if he deceives and takes all the dump's riches without giving what was promised? Tim had no desire to start everything from scratch. Where was the guarantee that it would be better? How to understand that what was offered was truly valuable?

A struggle was happening in Tim's heart. He understood that if he agreed to a relationship with Bill, big changes would begin in his life. Looking through the plastic window at the boundless expanses of his dump, Tim thought with deep melancholy about having to leave all this forever for something not quite understood? Who would show him the future? So he could only believe and hope that Bill was not deceiving him. Bill's speech did not seem suspicious. Exchanging the dump for something else?! Tim's mind could not comprehend this. He decided to think about it.

Reflection Questions for this Chapter

1. Please read Matt. 25:29; Rev. 3:14-22; Prov. 23:23; Matt. 25:1-13; Eph. 5:4-18; Isa. 1:2-31; 55:1-2; 60:1-5; 1 Cor. 13:1-3; Hos. 4:6 in light of this chapter.

2. What thought described in the lesson did you like the most?

3. Did you guess who this lesson is about?

4. Do you think Jesus has enough resources to cover all your debts and enrich you?

5. What is being offered to us to buy in the message to Laodicea: things or relationships? Explain your answer.

6. What do you think will happen to those who reject the counsel of the Faithful Witness and do not buy anything from Him?

7. Does the Lord have any other message for the people of the last time that, by observing it, one could ignore the message of the Faithful Witness?

8. Why is so little being said in our time about what is vitally important?

9. Do you think your life will change if you follow the advice of the Faithful Witness?

10. Will someone be an overcomer who does not accept the message of the Faithful Witness?

11. Is it worth changing your visible achievements for abstract promises and advice?