Image by Greg Plominski from Pixabay
“So, I have a hard question, Pop-Pop, and it's OK if you don't feel like answering it.”
“Ask, Tom,” 66-year-old Thomas Stepforth Sr. said to his 16-year-old grandson, Thomas Stepforth III, also known as Tom. “If my answer can help you live a better life than I have, I'm glad to help.”
“So, a billion dollars is a lot of money,” Tom said, “and I know you have three billion and some change. Why did you keep going? What I mean is, did you feel like you had to widen the gap on everybody who said a Black man couldn't?”
Mr. Stepforth considered this carefully.
“Y'all young people have a term: 'stunt on your haters.'”
“Aye yo!” Tom said as he forgot his question. “Pop-Pop is out here being hip – say it again!”
All of Mr. Stepforth's grandchildren deeply enjoyed hearing him say 'stunt on your haters,' but … .
“I'm not saying you should do that, I'm saying that you are right, Tom – remember the question you asked me?”
“Oh, yeah, I did have a question!”
“Well, you are all here, Melvin, Vanna, Tom, Velma, Vertran, Milton, and Gracie, so I'll answer it one time for all of you. Why does your Pop-Pop have three billion dollars and some change when one billion really is enough – part of it was that yeah, I was stunting on my haters. I was widening that gap. 'Oh, y'all don't think I can make a billion – watch me make two – watch me make three. The problem is, that's normal thinking at 16. It doesn't work when you are 36 with a family, and it doesn't work when your family needs everything from you that money can't buy. It also doesn't work because the better you do, the more a racist hates you – in other words, you can't convince a racist he or she shouldn't be superior, so the better you do, the more they hate.”
“That's deep bad,” Melvin said, “but it's also like how you can't work your way to heaven, except a lot dumber.”
“No, the first one is way dumber, because God loves us and provided the way to be saved in Christ, so trying to work one's way is ignoring that fact,” Mr. Stepforth said, “but fundamentally, the problem is the same: trying to work for what can't be earned. You cannot work your way into being loved by anyone who has decided they will not love you. You also can't take money and give it to people as a substitute for love. I had to learn that I was graced … graced with life, graced with the ability to get wealth, graced with a beautiful family, graced with a second chance to get it all right.
Now, the other reason I have three billion and change is called compound interest – my money is making money. I do give quite a lot, but I'm not interested in giving money away to everything, and if you give too much in some places, other people fail to sense their responsibility to be involved in the work for what they say they want. So, over time, I am going to bring that number of billions down, but once money like that starts running, it has a life of its own.
“Oh, this number doesn't count the trust funds I'm leaving y'all – already put those to the side.”
“Thanks, Pop-Pop,” Tom said. “The reason I asked is because my friends don't think I'm making enough money working for the Lofton County Free Voice, and that I should quit that and make more money to basically impress them, but no: I'm making the money I need to make in a company bringing real news to our community that you helped build, and I've paid Dad off for the kitchen between that and also doing PR work for Melvin's Team No-Sleep Beats.”
“Keep that 50-year headstart you've got on me, Thomas Stepforth III,” said his grandfather and namesake. “If you know what you are doing is right, and God is meeting your needs, you don't have to widen the gap and stunt on your haters. Your haters are not important enough to have you doing things you're not called to do, and they are going to hate no matter what you do – forget them! Keep doing what you are supposed to be doing!”
Wise advice.
I have really been learning in the past decade, largely by observation: trying to impress people determined not to care about you takes a lot of forms that all fail. People mess up what is really theirs, trying to impress those who do not care ... but our worth comes from the fact that God chose to make us and put us here, not from how much or how little we have. Anybody who doesn't get it just doesn't get it.
Amen
powerful and wonderful advice.Thank you for
You're welcome!