Wealth Without Toil
by Melanie Hemry
The scent of hot fries and burgers made Roy King’s stomach rumble as he slid into a booth at Burger King®. Sipping his coffee, he was glad that he’d spent his money on the book The Laws of Prosperity by Kenneth Copeland. Not that he knew who Kenneth Copeland was, but a businessman had recommended it to Roy.
The man had no way of knowing Roy was unemployed and broke.
His kids thought he was at work. Only Roy’s wife, Sally, knew he was without a job.
Roy saw no reason to advertise his financial situation.
With a degree in accounting, he had held great jobs. One company he’d worked for was bought out by the British, who brought in their own people and fired everyone else. He’d also been the office manager for a law firm. When they merged with another company, Roy’s position had been made redundant.
Nothing stressed Roy more than the thought of not being able to provide for his family. To pay the bills and put food on the table, he took any menial job he could find. He never wanted his children to go through what he had as a child. He’d been one of five children born into a warm, loving Catholic family. They’d been so poor that instead of practicing basketball on a court, Roy had dribbled on hard-packed dirt riddled with tree roots. When he won outstanding basketball star in high school, and was awarded a scholarship to college, he’d accepted his award wearing pants too short and shoes with holes in them. He didn’t believe that God wanted anyone to be that poor. In response, he developed a deep reliance on himself.
In college, he’d been a great athlete, playing under Al McGuire, the former Hall of Fame basketball coach at Marquette University. He’d learned that practice and hard work would get him wherever he wanted to go. On the job, he’d done the same thing, putting in 80-hour work weeks. Yet, somehow, life kept happening.
BVOV : 13
