Gain more wealth than your mind can comprehend

Supposing that as a result of the market mess, you ended up flat broke, with literally not a single cent in your pocket. Then somehow, you discovered that you have the opportunity of working again. And for the same amount of work, you will be paid with either 7 cents or with $70 Septillion times $7 Septillion. Question: which pay will you take?

But before you answer, allow me to give you a clearer idea of how much money we are talking about here. 7 cents is written as $0.07, which can get you several pieces of candy. On the other hand, 7 Septillion is written as $7 followed by 24 zeros after it. That is, $7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. If you think you can comprehend how much money $7 Septillion (the multiplier and the smaller figure in the equation) is, allow me to draw some comparisons.

1) The total world economy (yes, that includes the United States, European Union, etc.), is only less than US$55 trillion. You therefore need more than 127 Billion worlds, with the same economy size, to equal $7 Septillion.

2) According to its latest report, dated March 8, 2007, Forbes Magazine listed Bill Gates as the world’s wealthiest man, followed by Warren Buffett. The two have a combined net worth of $100 Billion. Assuming that their wealth remained the same, in spite of the market turmoil, 7 Septillion is therefore equivalent to 70 Trillion or 70,000,000,000,000 Bill Gates and Warren Buffetts.

3) The world’s population is reaching almost 7 Billion people. If we gave out $7 Septillion equally, every single citizen would have US$1 Quadrillion each! That’s enough to make the word “poverty” jump out of the dictionary and dissolve itself voluntarily, in a quadrillionth of a second.

Now that you have a dizzying and mind blowing idea of how much money $7 Septillion is, remember that you are yet to multiply it with the multiplicand of $70 Septillion. Recall that the equation was $70 Septillion times $7 Septillion. Now after coming up with the arithmetical answer, tell me if you can actually grasp the kind of money we are talking about now, before you swallow a 7 caplets of Extra Strength Tylenol, or Advil, or Bufferin, or Vanquish, to relieve your now aching head. If, after the first attempt, you are unable to, skip any further attempts at envisaging for a while. It’s not time yet. Relax and give me your answer to my original question.

You might ask “What was the question again?” Mathematics has that kind of effect on almost everyone in the planet.

Okay, the question was, which of the two pays will you take?

I am willing to bet all my US$1 Quadrillion (see number 3 above if you are still dazed by all these enormous numbers) that you will exclaim something like, “Are you nuts? What a silly question!”

If indeed that was a silly question, (meaning, who in his right mind will ever take 7 cents for an answer?), my next question is why then do most of us prefer to be silly?

Huh? Say that again?

Naah, you heard me. But for the sake of those who are still dizzy with the numbers, the question again is, “why then do most of us prefer to be silly?” Why do we content ourselves with 7 cents, when we can opt for $70 Septillion times $7 Septillion?

By the way, in the Jewish culture and tradition, the number seven symbolizes perfection. And when you multiply 70 times 7, it means without limit, and even denotes infinity.

You see most of us work our butts off, chasing after all sorts of unnecessary material goods. We chase after them, all in the conscious, or subconscious, hope that these goods will bring us happiness, which is the deepest of all our human desires. But in spite of the fact that experience has consistently shown us that no amount and type of material goods can bring us that happiness, we still keep on piling up with these worldly goods. What do they call people who keep on doing exactly the same thing over and over again, and actually expecting different results?

Remember how you felt when you finally bought your much dreamed about state-of-the-art cellphone, or your BMW 7 Series , or your mansion, or your luxury yacht? Yes, you might have felt happy (although “heightened excitement” or “exhilaration” may be the more appropriate term). But have you noticed how fleeting that “happiness” was? And worse, aren’t you again working even harder to get something “better”, in the vain hope of finally finding those worldly goods that can give you lasting happiness?

That’s why Jesus advised us to refrain from chasing after worldly goods. Being our God and our Creator, He only knows too well what exactly can really make us truly happy. And yet we stubbornly turn a deaf ear and chase after the kind of “happiness” that, in Heavenly terms, amount only to even less than 7 cents.

On the other hand, St. Paul has said “Eyes have not seen, nor ear has heard, nor has it entered our hearts, the kind of happiness that God has prepared for those who love Him.” Translation: our limited senses, minds, and even our hearts, can never grasp the kind of happiness that God so intensely desires to give to us. If only we spend our time on earth doing the work that pleases God.

Can you imagine eternity? Okay, historians and other scholars all agree that recorded human history began in Sumer, a place in ancient southern Mesopotamia (i.e., modern Iraq) just north of what is now called the Persian Gulf. The dates given for Sumer's origin, however, vary widely among scholars, typically ranging from about 3500 B.C. to about 2900 B.C. That makes recorded human history as old as 5,508 years old (3,500 plus 2008). If you think that the time of Columbus was already such a long ago, remember that Columbus lived only about 500 years ago. Think of all the people who died about 5,500 years ago. The ones who made it to Heaven have been perfectly happy ever since. And they will continue to experience uninterrupted perfect happiness for all eternity, or without end. No more problems of even the smallest kind whatsoever, no more need for anything whatsoever, no more worries of any kind, no more feelings of hunger, no more need for sleep. Just perfect and constant happiness.

By the way, remember that you only have one shot at this most important of all decisions. For, like everybody else, you only have one life to live.

So what’s it gonna be for you, the 7 cents worth of "perfect" happiness that this world can ever hope to offer , or the $70 Septillion times $7 Septillion worth of infinite and perfect happiness that our Almighty God is begging us to take?