By Xiaocheng, China
I Still Worked to Earn Money While I Was Sick
My parents, who were both farmers, supported our family and paid for our tuition fees by farming and toiling. Therefore, we led a life of poverty. Whenever I saw those rich people in my village buy what they wanted, live a comfortable life, and speak loudly and proudly, I always envied them, believing that having money was indeed a good thing, and that if one had money, he could lead an upper-class lifestyle and obtain the high regard of others. So I silently made the resolution: When I grow up, I must earn big money and live a wealthy life. Moreover, I encouraged myself to struggle with the idea of “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing.”
After marriage, I worked in a private machine factory and received good salary. Although the working environments were not good—there was loud noise from the workshop and there was a lot of fine iron and aluminum dust in the air—so that we had to wear a mouth mask at work every day, we could gain more money if we worked hard. As long as I was willing to work hard, I would earn double what others earned. At that time, there was the early shift and late shift in our factory. The early one was from 8am to 6pm and the late one was from 6pm to 1am the next day. In order to make more money, when I did the early shift, I came earlier than my colleagues and while they had a rest after lunch, I then hurried to continue working; when I did the late shift, other colleagues went home from work but I still worked overtime.
One time, after we finished the late shift and other colleagues all left, as usual, I worked overtime alone in the workshop over 1,000 square meters. Although I felt a bit of fear as I was there alone, the thought of being able to make more money dispelled my fears instantly. After 3am, my eyelids started fighting to stay open. I was afraid that I might produce nonconforming products and I was even more afraid that my mishandling would result in security risks, so I forcibly pinched my arm to refresh myself as I worked. After 5am, a security guard saw me when he checked the workshop, and then he snapped, “What are you doing?! Only you are working in the factory without any person together with you. If safety problems arise, that is not something to be trifled with! Quickly get your things and go home!” Having been forced out by the security guard, I, sleepy and hungry as well as dizzy, was on my way home, having a sore back. I was too sleepy to open my eyes and my legs felt weak, but I was thinking how it was three hours before the early shift, and thus I would lose a lot of money if I went home to sleep. In fact, sometimes I also wondered why I lived so tiredly. If I worked less like my colleagues, would I feel relaxed? However, when I drew my salary, which was more than any of my colleagues’, I was very delighted, as if I regained the driving force to work overtime again. I thought if things continued on like this, before long, I could buy a house and a car and that would be so wonderful!
One noon in June, 2012, just when I was going to work overtime after lunch, suddenly, my nose bled constantly and no matter what I did, I couldn’t stop the bleeding, so all I could do was go to the hospital for an examination. The doctor told me that I had a deviated nasal septum and needed surgery. My heart ached when I thought of how the surgery had cost me over 8,000 yuan, so I had planned how to recoup my expenses before I came out of hospital. The more I thought of this, the more I couldn’t stay there any longer. Consequently, after two days’ intravenous drips, and after undergoing the treatment twice, on the third day I then went to the factory to do the late shift. Seeing that my nose and face were as swollen as bread and that my eyes narrowed to slits, my leaders and colleagues all said I valued money above my own life and advised me to take care of my health first and then continue to work again. But my eyes were absolutely blinded by greed, so I didn’t think that was a big deal. I thought: If I don’t earn money when I’m young, then when will I finally live a rich life? However, due to the bad working environments and hot weather, it was easy for my nose to get infected, so my leader persuaded me to take half a month off work to have a rest, or else I would spend much more money than what I earned in these days if my nose was infected. After hearing my leader’s words, I thought what he said made sense. If my illness recurred, I would certainly spend much more money, so I had no choice but to ask to leave and go home.
I Missed God’s Salvation Because My Eyes Were Absolutely Blinded by Greed.
After I returned to my hometown, when my mother saw that I damaged my body to this extent in order to make money, she said to me, “Child, people often say things like ‘If you are destined to have something in your life, you’ll get it at last; if you are destined not to have something, don’t have an importunate demand.’ We needn’t compare ourselves with others. It’s fine that we can get by.” After hearing my mother’s words, I was curious and felt she was different from before. In the past, my mother always said to us that so-and-so bought a house or such and such bought a car. And she also asked us to make more money, not to be inferior to others and not to be looked down upon by others. But now, how come her attitude had changed? After a while, my mother said, “Child, now I believe in God. Through reading God’s words, I know how much wealth we will amass in life has already been preordained by God and it can’t be forced. Why don’t you read God’s words?” I thought: It is a money society now. There isn’t enough time for me to earn money. How could I have time to believe in God? I don’t know whether how much wealth one will possess is preordained by God, but I just know now I’m young, and I should spend the precious time making more money. So I said to my mother, “Mom, believing in God is a good thing. I see your mental outlook is rather good. But I’m busy working to earn money every day. I have no time. You believe in God together with dad.” After that, my mother preached the gospel to me many times, while no matter what she said, I just turned a deaf ear to her words.
After half a month, I almost recovered from my illness and then I quickly returned to the factory and continued to work to earn money day and night. One day, just when I was about to drink some water after finishing my work, I heard some noise coming from the outside of the workshop, so I curiously went to have a look. I was startled by the sight. One of our welders, with a pale face and a pained expression as well as a helpless look in his eyes, who used to eat lunch with us, was groaning on a stretcher and his thigh was covered with a piece of cloth. He was quickly carried out by the health care workers. Later, I discovered from other colleagues that he was rushing to work in order to earn more money, so he started working on the product before it was welded firmly, with the result that the product fell and broke the bone in his left thigh. It really was “Accidents happen, life is unpredictable.” He was lively and talkative the other day, but became like this today. However, this thing didn’t make me halt the progress of my pursuit of money. I just reminded myself to be careful when I worked in the future.
My hearing got severely worse due to the loud noise from the workshop where I worked, so as I worked, I was always worried that some security accidents would happen because of my poor hearing and I was also afraid of being fined for unsatisfactory products resulting from my carelessness. Therefore, almost every day I was in a state of high-level anxiety. Moreover, I started to feel pain in my lower back again, but I still wanted to earn more money so I continued working hard. However, my wife didn’t understand me, she often said that I only had eyes for money and never cared about our child and her, so she frequently argued with me. I felt so helpless and pained.
God Showed Mercy for Me Again When I Was Confused and Agonized
When I returned to my hometown again in June of 2013, brothers and sisters were meeting at my house. After my mother spoke about my distress, brothers and sisters patiently fellowshiped with me. This time I quieted my heart and carefully listened to what they said rather than refusing. Afterward, I read God’s words, “The Almighty has mercy on these people who have suffered deeply; at the same time, He is fed up with these people who lack consciousness, as He has had to wait too long for an answer from humanity. He wishes to seek, to seek your heart and your spirit, to bring you water and food and to awaken you, that you may no longer be thirsty and hungry. When you are weary and when you begin to feel something of the bleak desolation of this world, do not be lost, do not cry. Almighty God, the Watcher, will embrace your arrival at any time.” I felt a wonderful warmth in my heart and felt that this was God’s call to me. God knows everyone’s suffering. He saw me living in agony and then used brothers and sisters to preach the gospel to me. I was very moved in my heart. Afterward, my parents fellowshiped a lot of the word of God to me, which allowed me to understand that only by coming before God and listening to God’s words can one get God’s care and blessings. Consequently, I accepted the gospel of the kingdom of God and quickly led a church life in the city where I worked. I gathered together and sang praises to God with my brothers and sisters in my spare time, feeling very light and liberated in my heart. I no longer worked overtime like before. Gradually, my lower back was getting better. This made me feel the authority and the might of God’s words and the importance of God’s words to me. However, my understanding of the truth was so shallow that I couldn’t see through the devices employed by Satan to harm people, so I would be happy when my salary was high, whereas when it was low, I would try to work overtime again to make money. Gradually, I had no time to read God’s words and I couldn’t even quiet my heart during the meetings which were twice a week. All I thought of was how to earn more money. So I lived in pain again, not knowing how to shake it off.
To Be Continued …
Part Two: Escaping From the Bondage of Money, I Live a Happy Life (II)
