“We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving Grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!" — Abraham Lincoln
The people must have listened and obeyed, the place now riddled with churches but they're no better off than back then. If anything, the rich now richer, the poor are poorer. I travelled to America a few years back and a sight I'd never seen before were so many people reading from their pocket bibles while awaiting a flight. A guy I know (business friend) drove me through one of the main streets of Oklahoma, I was physically feeling ill on the sight of row upon row of every type denomination of churches next to each other and across the road from each other, it was a sickening sight.
But what you don't realize is that it's all facade. Rich only appear rich on the outside. They're just as vain and unhappy as their poor neighbors. And the poor is not only downtrodden economically but spiritually bankrupt as well. Of course, I'm overgeneralizing but this is especially pronounced in the younger generation of today. It's a real problem.
A minister passes away and he finds himself at the pearly gates. He walks up to St. Peter and he introduces himself. “My name is Reverend Charles Smith,” he says, expecting to be let into paradise immediately. So St. Peter looks him up in the book, and says to him, “Nice to meet you, Reverend. Why don’t you have a seat over there on that bench and we’ll get to you as soon as we can.” A little taken back, the minister walks over to this little wooden bench and sits down as he was told. After sitting there a few hours, he sees another man come up to St. Peter, and St. Peter says, “Name?” and the gentleman replies, “My name is Robert Wilkerson.” St. Peter looks it up in the book, “Wilkerson…Wilkerson…ah yes here you are. Robert Wilkerson, you’re the New York heart surgeon. We’ve been expecting you. Come right in.” And in he goes. A few hours pass by and the minister is still sitting on the bench when another man walks up to St. Peter. “Name?” and the gentleman replies, “My name is Michael Murphy.” St. Peter looks it up in the book, “Murphy…Murphy…ah yes here you are. Michael Murphy, the farmer from Iowa. We’ve been expecting you. Come right in.” And in he goes. Now the minister is beginning to get a bit miffed by this whole thing. But he decides to sit it out a little longer. A few more hours go by, and finally another man walks up to St. Peter, and St. Peter says, “Name?” and the man replies, “David Stevens.” St. Peter looks in his book and says “David Stevens…the famous hedgefund manager? Well, come right in, we’re very excited to have you here.” The gates open and the hedge fund manager strolls right in, past the minister sitting on the bench. Well, now the minister has come to the end of his patience, and he marches right up to St. Peter and says, “St. Peter…okay, okay. The doctor, I got that. He saves lives, so of course he goes in. I can understand that. Makes all the sense in the world. And the farmer, all right…an honorable profession, hard worker, helps feed people. I can understand that. He goes in. But the hedge fund manager? How come he waltzes in while I sit on this hard bench?” St. Peter says, “You know, I was trying to be tactful here. Up here we go by results. I didn’t want to say it, but the truth is when you gave your sermons, your congregation slept. When that guy traded…his investors prayed.” — From Jack D. Schwager's Winning Methods of the Market Wizards (2002)
“It's not what's happening to you now or what's happened in your past that determines who you become. Rather, it's your decisions about what to focus on, what things mean to you, and what you're going to do about them that will determine your ultimate destiny.” ― Tony Robbins