“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
Growing Dominion, Part 107
“Wealth makes many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbor” (Prov. 19: 4).
This observation can be taken in two ways, both of them accurate. The first is that wealth creates many “friends.” You win the lottery and discover just how many distant cousins you had. The flip side of this is that hard times reveal that many of your friends were actually fair weather friends. This is a more cynical take on this passage, and unfortunately, it is frequently the case.
But it is also true in a more benign sense. Wealth creates opportunities, and without the wealth you don’t have those opportunities. Such would include education, travel, and so on, and part of what comes with this is the opportunity to cultivate friendships. I have a number of friends who live in other parts of the country, and without the wealth that we all enjoy in this culture, this would be impossible. Imagine trying to maintain a close friendship at a distance in the 17th century and now. What is the difference? Wealth. And the opposite is also true—those who are confronted with grinding poverty don’t have the same opportunities. And what this means is that wealth, as a gift of God, can be either used or abused. But one of the blessed uses of wealth is the cultivation of friendships—using what God has given you in order to bless others.