Roy was as strong and healthy as a horse. He thought nothing of riding miles on his bicycle to transact business. Once while on my way home from college, I saw him riding his bike near Springfield, IL some 40 miles from his home. His bike was loaded down with several squawking chickens strung on ropes and a gunnysack full of corn. I knew he would refuse a ride even if I offered him one.

I became acquainted with Roy when I was a boy. I remember the day he brought his sister, Mary, to church. Old Roy, short grizzled hair, sun bronzed skin with hardened muscles bulging under his tattered clothes, effortlessly rode his screeching bicycle up the hill to the church with his spinster sister precariously perched on the handlebars holding on for dear life. They lived at the edge of town in an old ram-shackled house with a chicken coop out back. Boxes of newspapers and salvage were stacked from floor to ceiling. Roy regularly brought Mary to church, although I never knew of him attending. I later tried talking to him about God, but he insisted he didn’t want to talk about it.

What many people didn’t know was that Roy had a penchant for collecting and hoarding fifty-dollar bills. Whenever he would sell his chickens, eggs, and salvaged goods, he saved his money until he could exchange it for fifty-dollar bills. For years, poor Roy lived frugally, hoarding every possible penny. His sister Mary told me what I had heard rumored about – Roy kept containers of coins, counting them often. Whenever the coins and cash totaled fifty-dollars, he would take them to the bank and exchange them for one of the coveted bills. Even larger earnings would be reduced to fifty-dollar bills. Mary revealed that Roy had several caches of fifty-dollar bills hidden throughout the house. Mary said she only had one dress and Roy wouldn’t let her get any clothes unless hers were in rags.

One dark night when I was in high school, I was driving down the road where Roy and Mary lived. From a distance, I saw flames shooting up through the roof of their house. The fire trucks were there and firefighters were trying to bring the fire under control. Roy arrived about the same time that I did. Running down the road, stuttering, shouting, and crying, “I have to get in! I have to get in! All I have is in there!” Roy’s life was spared that awful night, but all of his fifty-dollar bills went up in smoke. How pathetic Roy looked that unforgettable night.

If only poor Roy would have listened to Jesus’ admonishment. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).

Where do you keep your treasures? When you come to the end of your life and stand before God, will your treasures go up in smoke? You may be considered a good Christian, go to church regularly, and contribute towards the church’s budget, but what are you doing for the Lord? Is it for Him or for you?

Paul spoke of the Corinthian Christian’s investments. “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is . . . If any man’s work abide . . . he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work is burnt, he shall suffer loss” (I Corinthians 3:11-15).

The wood, hay, and stubble represent transient investments, selfish hoarding, and wrong motives that cannot stand God’s judgment. Gold, silver, precious stones represent what you do for Jesus’ sake out of a heart of love. It signifies the work of the Holy Spirit enriching our lives through eternal investments.

Poor Roy was rich in fifty-dollar bills, but poor toward God. (see Luke 12:31-21; 16:19-31.) Don’t watch your life go up in smoke. Jesus became poor so we could become rich. (See II Corinthians 8:9.) How? “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).