Acres of Diamonds… you’ve read the famous story, or at least had it related to you. A farmer hears tales of diamonds and begins dreaming of vast riches. He sells his farm and hikes off over the horizon, never to be heard from again. Rumors say that years later he died destitute, never having found the diamonds he spent his life seeking. Meanwhile, the man who bought that farm found a large and “interesting looking”
Stone in a stream that ran through the property. He put the stone on his mantle where a visitor recognized the large stone as a rough diamond. It turned out to be the Hope Diamond, the largest such stone ever found. That stream bed was littered with diamonds, and the new owner became fabulously wealthy. No doubt he also lived happily ever after.
But doesn’t something in that story set strangely with you? What about the guy with the burning desire and the grand vision? He ended up disappointed and broke, dying far.
Not a happy ending. Meanwhile, the guy who just wanted to do some farming got all the riches. Make no mistake, the new owner already had money, or he could not have bought the land.
There’s nothing in this story to make us think he was dreaming about riches, vast or otherwise. No burning desire. But he got the goodies.