June 10, 2009

• Thought For the Week 9

  Make Me your focal point as you move through this day. Just as a spinning ballerina must keep returning her eyes to a given point, to maintain her balance, so you must keep returning your focus to Me. Circumstances are in flux, and the world seems to be whirling around you. The only way to keep your balance is to fix your eyes on Me, the One who never changes. If you gaze too long at your circumstances, you will become dizzy and confused. Look to Me, refreshing yourself in My Presence, and your steps will be steady and sure.
  
  Psa 102:27  But thou [art] the same, and thy years shall have no end.
  Hbr 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

  I found this interesting because for a lot of people, their world is spinning right now. Financial matters have become extremely stressing and pressing. I’m not working but I don’t feel stressed nor pressed. God had things set up and in place for me long ago, and all I had to do was simply consult Him and follow through on the ideas and thoughts He placed in my mind.

  My world doesn’t spin, in part, because I don’t worry about things. I’ve learned to trust in God and lean on Him. The other reason, which correlates to the whole trust issue, is that since nothing is mine on this earth, and all things belong to God, what me worry? It’s not my stuff.

  Part of many people’s problem is that they think they are working hard for stuff they think is “theirs.” People don’t seem to realize that we were born to work, and some way or another we all will. If we don’t, scripture says that if a man doesn’t work, he doesn’t eat. However, I want to add to that just a bit. If a man doesn’t have faith, and consult the Master about how to handle money, he may not eat either.

  Some people don’t consult God at all about money. They think He has nothing to do with that. Fact of the matter is, our relationship to money is a direct reflection to our relationship with God and has eternal consequences. You can’t be right with God and wrong with money.

  I may not have much money coming into my house currently according to the market or by whatever standards people use to assess such things, but what does come in is more than enough.

  And the thing is, when I need more, God just opens up a can of miracles and it’s blessing upon blessing upon even more blessings, ‘til I have non-Christians saying, “You are one “lucky” s.o.b.” I have to tell them, it’s not luck. I’ve never been lucky one day in my life. “Get it right,” I say, “I’m blessed, not lucky. I’m blessed because I’m God’s child and I trust Him.”

  The world is whirling around us. It’s spinning faster and faster, and we are drowning trying to keep up with time. Frankly, I stopped trying to keep up with it. All these deadlines, and the pressures to produce in a “fast paced environment,” is just not for me.

  My focus is on God and whatever doors He opens for me, is not only fine with me, but I will happily walk through, because I know that He has my best interests at heart.

  So whatever is happening, I’m chill. Recently, some issues came up with my son. Most parents would be beyond boiling over this. I was a bit upset initially, because I was surprised and disappointed in my son’s behavior.

  This same problem has occurred several times now, and I’ve come to the conclusion that my responsibility is not to blame myself, but to take action that forces my son to take responsibility and accountability for his own actions and choices. Part of the impression I must make is to demonstrate to him the potential end result of his current set of bad choices.

  So I have. I took a radical approach which drew some criticism from my mother, but I expected that from her. First it was, I had done too little and let things go too long, and then five minutes later, I was being too extreme in my approach to the situation. That is neither here nor there. The only thing that matters is that I made a strong impression on my son that will make him rethink his current path and behaviors.

  I didn’t let the situation spin out of control, or whirl around me and I stand around acting helpless. I prayed and took action. A good male friend had made a suggestion on how to deal with it, but he says I took it five steps further, and the thing is, I wasn’t angry making that decision. I’m not stressed in any way.

  In fact, I took a stress test on face book in one of their apps, and according to that (and who knows how accurate this foolishness is) my stress level is at 3%.

  The other thing happening is that I should have a car by the end of this week. My friend Deb & “the cousin” Jemma made this wonderful arrangement for me.

  In my new business, they offered us a chance to upgrade our level in the company. I had considered a small upgrade to the gold level, because I’m currently at the silver level, but I didn’t see it as really affordable.

  Miss Jemma suggested to both Deb and I that I purchase Deb’s parent’s former car, which was sitting in her driveway, and which she was paying $65/mthly to keep insured. We checked the value of the car, and it prices between 3-5k in Kelly blue book.

  Long story short, the offer was an upgrade to platinum in the company for the price I would pay for the car, which was 1k, which is actually the price of the platinum upgrade.

  I was thrilled, and accepted, but about 3-4 days later, there was a hick-up in the arrangement. My paying the 1k for the upgrade would have automatically caused Deb an upgrade due to her meeting the requirements for such, my upgrade being the final one. So we would have had two upgrades with one car payment, and I would have also had the car free and clear. Amazing, right? But, Deb missed her deadline due to an unexpected email of extension from the company, which confused the entire plan quite by accident, because of other things forgotten in consideration of this news, like her 56 day deadline for her upgrade.

  So Miss Jemma told me that she might not be able to get me the upgrade as well as a result. I was fine with it, because I had already gotten a break on the insurance after an error in which I was put in a high risk level by accident, and this was corrected already.

  To get the car for the 1k alone was still a great deal, so I didn’t mind. Now, word is, Deb went to bat on the phone all day, and may have worked out a gold upgrade for me as well, which is what I was originally considering anyways. So it all works out. It’s like Jerry Seinfeld with the “even Steven” thing, except, I always seem to come out much better than just even.

  Again, none of us fretted too much over the situation. We just prayed and left it in God’s hands to work out. I’m satisfied with whatever He chooses. That’s what everyone needs to learn to be…satisfied.

  • 12:35 am
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