You Want To Be Rich?

-Guest Post by Dave Webb-

So, you want to be rich? This is what I believe concerning riches . . .

The people that have become rich know a little secret that the rest of us have missed. It sound crazy.

It is the truth.

I have no desire to be rich. I would rather have a life. So I am careful what I ask for. I learned this the hard way.

John D. Rockefeller was rich beyond his wildest dreams. He and his wife led a rather disciplined existence concerning money.

When they had children, they tried to teach them the secret as well.

The secret to riches is the double tithe. God will do the rest.

One of my best friends has money. His father earned this money for him. He was a history teacher most of his life. He remained single all of his life and still is. He is retired now.


But his “Daddy” died in his late 80s worth about 4 million dollars. He had obtained something like 32 patents on industrial safety equipment that prevented people from loosing limbs to heavy industrial equipment. His secret was he donated 20% of his money his entire life to God. You simply cannot out give God. God kept giving it back 20 fold times 10.

My friend continues the tithe. He preaches. He has a calling from God. He helps people. More important to my friend I think is he has a decent life. He is a totally born-again Christian with fundamentalist beliefs.

John D. Rockefeller had a biography on PBS recently. I was interested because he followed the principle of the double tithe. He taught this secret to all his children. He was a believer in God.

The responsibility of wealth was overwhelming. He turned this responsibility in his old age over to his son. With riches comes responsibility to use that wealth correctly. It is not an easy responsibility and I have no desire to spend my life on that responsibility. John D Rockefeller looked relieved when he turned the responsibility over to his son.


John D. Rockefeller and family made big mistakes in handling people. The son tried to correct those mistakes. The family has given us some fine government leaders.

To be rich is to be desired. People naturally are drawn to people with money.

Some have had it end tragically. Like the kidnapping of a child in the 30s. I don't think the Lindbergh family ever recovered.

So with riches comes another responsibility. The protection of the family from crooks all too willing to try to obtain the riches you have made. This naturally restricts your life. To be rich is to be royalty and to be royalty is to lose control over your life. There can be a price to pay for being rich.


My friend tries to keep his wealth a secret. I don't blame him.

In the 90s I was given responsibility to be a Union Steward. We called it “chapel chairman” because originally the Union was a craft union with strong religious beliefs. The Chapel Chairman's job was to originally lead prayer to God. It evolved into representing the entire group. Even the Foreman over the group was a member of the Chapel. One of my responsibilities was to distribute overtime.

I put together rules different than any other Chapel Chairman in history of that group. I distributed overtime with credits for overtime asked for. A number went beside everyone's name. That number was the overtime you were given the opportunity to work. You could turn it down. But it determined who was asked next for overtime. A second number was your priority. The oldest priority member being the one that had worked the longest in the group. If two people had been asked the exact same amount of overtime then the one with priority was asked first. I also had skill levels added to this list.
So you were not asked if it was a job you could not do. I had help from a lot of people putting these rules of fairness together. I didn't do it alone.


The people with known Christian background, for some reason unknown to me, always ended up with more asked for overtime than anyone else. You could say it was chance. I was very strict in keeping the list honest and fair. But I suspect God had something to do with the list because the people I know were probably tithing had more overtime asked on the list than anyone else. No list can be completely fair. We made mistakes. But the nature of the list actually kept it fair as possible.

I once needed money to survive in the mid 80s. I was at my church of choice. The preacher was preaching on the tithe. If you give it will be given back to you. Okay! Sounds good to me! I am broke. I had a $20 in my wallet. So I gave the entire $20 in the offering that Wednesday night. I gave everything that I had that night left after paying my bills and feeding my family to God. It was crazy.
It would never work, right? I had nothing to lose really. So I tried it.


Monday, the company I worked for announced they were going into an entirely new way of marking up ads in my job. I was the second person trained in the new way of computer markup. The company determined who got trained next. I wasn't anywhere near the top of priority list. But I did have the skills they needed.

For the next six months I had more overtime than I could handle. I was divorced at the time and raising 2 of the 3 boys I had. I was on a very strict budget to keep my head above water financially and it wasn't working out. So that overtime was a pretty big thing in my life. It happened because of that donation tithe at the church I was going to.

I started looking at other people that tithed. They all had similar stories. And that is where I get the idea that if you want to really be rich, tithe to God as much as you can possibly afford. The more you give to God, the more will be given back to you. Ask anyone that has done it. They will tell you the same thing I am saying.


I don't know how it works. I just know it works. Whenever, I need to reverse my fortunes, that is what I do. I double tithe. God asks in the Bible for 10%. My friend's father had it right. He doubled the tithe and got a lot of money back. You cannot out give God.

Please do not get me wrong. God had me work for every penny I ever earned. So if you want to be rich, remember, he will make you work for it. But it will be given to you in accordance with how much you give in your tithing to God.


Wonder if that might work for the Government . . .