[If you have not read the initial blog entry, please follow THIS LINK before continuing on in your reading here. Thank you.]
Wow. The response to the blog entry from yesterday has been such a blessing. I have read your replies of honesty, humility, and confession. Each statement has blessed and touched my life. Thank you! Because the realm of finances is a particularly sticky and difficult subject to most I know your words did not come easily.
From dear ones confessing that they spend entirely too much on cable TV to others putting a voice to just how difficult it is to forsake "all the spending" going on around them and choose a different path.... the openness to hear the hard word yesterday, submit to it, and give place for the Spirit to correct your course is just stunning!
I applaud your open ears and your humility that says, "You know, my way just isn't working. Hasn't in years."
As difficult as it was to write those words yesterday -- and it was difficult, knowing they would weigh heavy on those willing to read them, I did not take lightly its message. And let me add, I did not speak them from a lofty place.
God takes us -- those willing to follow Him -- through seasons in life. Precious, yet often times profoundly difficult, places to shape and mold our character.
Permit me to share a bit about my background for those who know it not.
(I do so not so you can take your path and compare it to mine. We all have a path. I share it to convey I can relate to the ebb and flow of life, both the ups and the downs.)
I was raised in a strong Christian family that knew much about finances. I was taught at an early age the "healthy" principles of finance. At ten, I recall my father giving to me a booklet called, "Common Cents." And I walked those principles out in my teen years and through my college years. I paid cash for the furniture in my first apartment. Bought and paid cash (minus six months) for a car right out of college.... a new (the only car I ever bought new) reasonable, base model Honda Civic hatchback. (I drove that car into the ground - well over ten years and 200,000 miles give or take!) I had the "proper" foundation for "good living" all lined up.
But God had His plan.
I look back now and see we were doing such a good job at managing "our" finances. As far as we knew, we were working our 'sage' plan "for Him." We tithed like a good church goer did. I taught financial classes at church. In my thirties, I was asked to be a church's CFO and sat on the corporate board. I was applauded for turning the church's finances around and getting things in order. On the personal front, at the age of 24, as a married couple, Brian and I bought our first home. Within two years of owning our first home, we had almost fully paid it off. "Life" seemed to be on the right track.
Then God showed up to test and prove His Lordship in our lives... and turned our world upside down....
- We sold our home and invested the money ..... within months, it went south.... way south.
- On the heels of this loss, our third child departed for Glory.
- We bought another home shortly thereafter. (I needed a change of scenery.)
- Then right on the heels of moving in....unemployment came. 2 years and 2 months. But this wasn't just any unemployment....
- The Lord had us secretly give away everything we had without benefit of tax write-offs during the first six months, and then said, "Now you will see MY provision over you."
- That time transformed us in a number of permanent ways... finances being but one.
- Transformed our thinking from that of an orphan to that of a beloved well-tended to daughter and son of the Most High.
- Taught us the liberty of giving, free from formulas and compulsion.
- Transformed our thinking from a "tip of the hat" on the stewardship concept to a "full on" steward of the Most High.
- Taught us the dangers of the "many voices" and false hope referenced in yesterday's writing.
- Taught us the balance of planning and being Spirit-led.
Through it all, our faith was undeniably molded into an unshakable, obedient faith. I give HIM my highest praise!
As a proclaimed child of the King, live long enough, and He'll step in and rock your comfortable world if He hasn't already.
Why? To both prove and show what is within us. HIM. Full-on Authority. Full-on Power. FULL-ON. THE Great I-AM.
There is just something about how He rocks our world that both compels and enables our roots to press down into the unshakeable arena unlike anything else IF we dare to follow Him to those depths. THAT dynamic -- HIS dynamic --brings life, real life, to people. And once you taste real life, you'll lose your appetite for all the counterfeit living out there...all of it.
Apart from Him, I have nothing to offer people. Empty I came into this world, and empty I will leave it.
But point them to God....offer to share what has been learned along the way from walking with Him? Now we are on to something! The Maker of the heavens and earth. The One who grants us not formulas, but LIBERTY. The One who already made THE strongest safety net there ever will be.
What ever you perceive to have or hope to have is worth less than dung when compared to wholly saturating yourself in Him and His ways. I'm deadly serious here.
Have we "arrived"? Oh, I'd be a fool to say we have. If life has taught me anything, it has taught me that we do not stop learning and being transformed from "glory to glory!" (2 Corin 3:18) I don't know about you, but I am thankful for a "life time" path. It grants to me much needed time to learn, be transformed, sow, and then reap! I have learned not to begrudge time, but to see it as the merciful gift God intended it to be! Give Him praise if YOU are on that journey.... IN MOTION! (Do not stagnate by growing complacent! Do not quit by sitting down on the side of the road! Finish! As the Word says, we have a cloud of witnesses cheering us on! (Heb 12:1) I can do this. YOU can do this. )
Some are challenged by my directness, but I tell you most boldly, I will face you on the other side in Glory knowing I did not beat around the bush or sugar coat the message or permit an emotional fog to cloud life-giving truths!
Week in and week out, I see and meet with families in disarray -- broken to bits -- but continuing in the "rut of insanity." I cannot stay silent. It is not an option.
His truth of the soil types remains. There will be those that hear and do nothing. There will be those who hear and get excited at first, but then also do nothing. But there will be those who hear and ACT. As Francis Chan wrote in "Crazy Love," be careful to inspect your soil -- ensuring that YOU are truly the good soil you think yourself to be. How will you know? You'll change! That's how!
The thing about following God is we don't get to pick the tools He uses on us. We don't get to pick how often nor how long He works on us.
Ours is the task of saying simply, "According to Your word, be it done to Thy handmaiden."
I share this entry with you to say I understand the challenge of making ends meet, watching as dreams become a vapor, grasping on to false hope, hearing the voices that tickle the ears and give the delusion of promise. I understand. But there is NO life in any of that. The fog only becomes thicker and clouds out the Sonshine.
In most situations, the first step of my counsel is to tell the person or the couple simply to stop.
What brought me through during times of intense fog or storm was a commitment to NEVER out step or out pace God, even as my flesh sought to panic or to scream a little louder, as if He had lost sight of me.
I had to learn (it is a lesson truly, deeply rooted by experience only) that no matter how uncomfortable I was at being in the fog or the storm of life, He was there....ever present, ever able, ever purposed.
In the "fog" or "storms" of life, I have humbly asked Him to confirm and re-confirm if necessary. One time I clearly recall He affirmed a particularly challenging path three times -- one each month for three months -- before I boldly stepped out. He didn't berate me for my lack of speed, but applauded my caution that sought to affirm HIS voice in the midst of all the noise. How many know life is FULL of noises!? Sometimes muffled noises, but other times, nearly deafening!
The Christian walk is one of great diligence, surrender, and obedience. Don't be so quick to read over those three words and rush on. Pause for a moment, and ask yourself honestly, "Am I diligent in my day to day, doing my best? Am I wholly surrendered to HIS will day to day, and not my own? Am I obedient day to day, even when it is not convenient or my flesh is screaming out its wants?"
Yes, God's grace abounds..... but it does not abound to suffer at the hands of our childishness, the self-centered "me" bubble that willfully demands its desires be met.
We are called to die to self, so that it is no longer "I" who lives, but Christ in me. That does NOT come easy for the diligent, surrendered, obedient one! But it does not come at all to the passive nor to the complacent.
You aren't truly living until you lay down EVERY SINGLE desire and dream you ever had. If what you desire and dream truly came from God and Christ intends to live it through you, He alone possesses the power and authority to pick it up and revive it, bringing it thus from the willing altar of death to full-on maturity of life. But the longer you strive to protect it or see it come to be, it becomes self-evident that you carry an orphan mentality that is toxic to the Spirit.
It's His way -- or no way.
Again, I just absolutely applaud those of you who have communicated with us that you both see the error in your ways and desire Him to correct your course. The next step is to listen for His direction. If TV cable needs to be cancelled, cancel it. If a car needs to be sold, sell it. Whatever your next step, He will tell you. But be careful. Those "other voices" will be whispering, "Did He really say that? Did He really mean it?" just like they whispered in Eve's ear. The answer is "Yes, He really did and really does!" God is full-on Authority! He says what He means, and He means what He says! Don't make Eve's mistake!
Seek Him with your whole heart.... and when you do... you will find Him! But finding Him...truly finding Him (not the one you are looking to fulfill your dreams, but the One who is waiting for you to fulfill His... (Remember - this whole thing called creation isn't about you....it's about Him. Period.)) comes with a cost... a high cost... but it is worth it! Completely worth it!
Godspeed, dear ones!
Deborah
www.joyinthemorning.com
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