Scripture
So Hiram called the region Cabul because he thought it was worthless.
~I Kings 9:13, CEV
Quote
We make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give.
~Winston Churchill
Solomon enjoyed many luxuries due to his father’s sacrifice. Hiram was king of Tyre, modern day Syria and had been a loyal friend and ally of David. Solomon milked this relationship by using Hiram to furnish him with the cedar {lumber} to build all his buildings. This went on for twenty years. As a reward, Solomon gave Hiram ten towns in the North which would make them close to Hiram. Hiram was excited until he went and saw the towns with his own eyes. He was so disappointed that he named the entire area Cabul which means “worthless.” He lets Solomon know that he took his gifts as an insult but Solomon doesn’t respond. What kind of a person gives worthless or cheap gifts to a friend? This reminded me of two stories that I am now free to share.
The first story involves myself and I will keep the other two anonymous. This happened ten or so years ago. The girls {Office} had gotten gift cards for Christmas and one of them tried to use her card at a restaurant: she was embarrassed to find that there was only a couple of dollars on the card. It had been used. On the next working day, she asks the other secretary if she has tried to used her card. This is where the story gets fuzzy in my memory. I can’t remember if she had or hadn’t but long story short, her card had also been used. I think the second one may have had 5-6 dollars on it. Both were 25$ gift cards. Obviously, the person who gave them thought they were worth full value. Either he had used them which is not likely or they had been re-gifted to him and then he passed them on. I have never told him what happen: maybe someday but I’m not ready just yet. Be careful about gift cards and re-gifting. Hey, its funny now but wasn’t funny when they tried to use it to pay for their meal.
The second story happened to me alone. I got a call from a man who had just upgraded from a quarter of a million dollar house to a half. His wife wanted new furniture so he told me to come get the old. One would think, in dealing with a millionaire many times over, that this furniture would be nice. June and I had always used second hand furniture and we had a house filled with kids and a driveway filled with cars. Can you imagine having five vehicles with five insurance premiums, plus gas, oil and tires. I don’t know how we made it. Any way, I hook up the trailer and take off to his brand new $500,000 house. When I got there, only a daughter was home so I told her why I was there and she said, “Yes, dad said you would come,” and she took me to the three car garage and showed me the furniture. It took my breath away; not in the good sense. I would put the stuff in Francis cat house. I stood there for a minute and then I said to his daughter, “tell your dad that he can haul this junk off himself, I don’t have time to do it.” I would give anything if I had a picture of this so called furniture. You would not believe it! I was stunned; matter of fact, I am still stunned.
I don’t want to be cheap but rich folks don’t care. Solomon never responded to Hiram and I kept waiting on a response from the man who insulted me but I didn’t get one. They could care less. I just thought of another story about how cheap the rich can be but I will save it.
I should have went ahead with the third story. Now I can’t remember what it was and I really like to know myself. On Wednesday I wore long sleeves and ran my heater in the office building. Yesterday I got sunburned: no where else but Alabama.