Financial Peace

I wonder how often God prepares us in ways we don't understand.

I like listening to a few different podcasts.  About half of them are sermons from various churches around the country that I respect and appreciate.  Normally these sermon topics are unrelated to each other.  It is nice to get a taste of a variety of spiritual insights.  But something unusual happened this week.  The sermons I listened to all revolved around the topic of money and putting God first in our finances. 

A few years ago our church went through the "Financial Peace" seminars from Dave Ramsey.  I learned a lot in those seminars and am grateful for the way that I have been able to live since then.  I feel blessed in so many ways.  Putting God first in our finances really does put Him first in every area of our lives.  Its no longer about me.  Its about God and others first.  The sermons that I listened to this week were great.  They were all in line with what I learned in FP and were all inspiring.  But at the same time, I felt like they were only loosely applicable because I am already doing almost everything that they recommended.  Don't get me wrong, I really believe in this stuff.  It just felt like reminders.  I need to be the bottom of my priority list.  God and others at the top.

I kept thinking,..."God, what's up with this?  Why are you reminding me of these things right now?  Have I lost my focus in what I learned?  Am I missing something?"

Well, today I kinda hit a point where it started to mean something.  This has been an interesting month for me financially.  I have had a series of things happen to my car that add up to around 1000 dollars.  I was tempted to get frustrated by it.  I really hate spending money on my car.  This is a lot all at once that I didn't see coming. 

But as I felt the annoyance growing, I also heard God whispering to me,..."Don't worry, I've got this. You've been blessed."  Those sermons really were reminders.  But reminders in advance.

Now at the moment, I don't expect anything crazy to happen.  I often hear stories about God coming through impossible situations and providing in miraculous ways.  But I have a feeling that God has already done the work for this one.  One of the things that I've done is to set up a savings account for car stuff.  I don't save as consistently as I would like to, but it more than covers this months costs.  I really didn't want to have to spend that money.  It would be nice to save it towards my next car when that day comes (hopefully not too soon). 

But here's the issue: if I save it, am I missing God's blessing?  I don't want to have such a tight grip on the blessing of God, that I strangle it.  God's blessing for this situation has already come through the truths He taught me about saving.  I have money available.  He has provided.  No fear, no worries, no stress.  Its taken care of.  And that money really isn't mine anyway.  If I spend the money and another need comes up, God will provide.  I am confident of it.  But I refuse to ignore the blessing I have available in favor of the blessing I imagine or desire that is not currently available.

So God prepares the way.  Don't miss it.  In what area has God blessed you?  Are you hanging on too tightly?

Growing Up Without a Dad

Twelve years ago yesterday, my dad passed away.  (March 4, 1999)

I love my dad.

It is amazing the impact that the words of a Father have over a child.

Please hear me: I love my mom.  It couldn't have been easy raising two teenage boys alone.  My mom is an amazing woman.  "Love mom the most," he used to tell my brother and I.  And I think we did that while he was still with us.  He loved us boys and cherished our affection and attention, but he really wanted to see us develop a healthy loving relationship with our mom.  He knew we would need it to make it through this life.  I sometimes wonder if he somehow prophetically knew that he was going to pass early.  But with all that being said, there is something about growing up without a dad that leaves me feeling somewhat incomplete.  I feel like there are so many ways that I missed out by not having a dad present.  I know its nobody's fault.  I'm not mad at God about it.  Its just made some things tough and other things very tough.

It is not easy to develop a healthy understanding of what it means to be a man without a dad.  It is difficult to know who or what to imitate in other men, because they have different DNA.  Most of my fears and insecurities come from this missing role in my life.  I still have a lot of learning to do - about myself, manliness, and godliness.

My dad used to pray a blessing over my brother and I:

"May you know goodness and greatness, and may you know God's Goodness and Greatness."

I feel like this blessing has profoundly impacted my life.  I have spent much of my life trying to live out these words.  I had consciously forgotten them for a long time, but hadn't stopped chasing after them subconsciously.  My life is one of pursuit after excellence, but also a pursuit of generosity.  Most of my life choices are an attempt to show goodness towards others and to do so effectively in ways that will have an impact on the world.  Behind all of my choices though, I find an unrelenting pursuit of God that continuously grows in passion.  I desperately want to KNOW God's Goodness and His Greatness.  My dad was a man of God.  I want to honor him and his relationship with God Our Father, by developing my own.  I want to know my God the same way my dad did.

I think I would have made my dad proud.  I think we might have become good, close friends as I matured into adulthood.  I wish I could know the insights and wisdom he would have given me.  I wish I could have experienced life with him as a coach and fan by my side the whole way.

Every time you find Jesus talking directly to God (praying) or teaching on prayer, He is addressing God as Father. Abba. Daddy.  He uses terms like God and Lord, but only when teaching the people.  But He still mixes in His fair share of "your Father" and "my Father".

Jesus had a deeply intimate relationship with His Father.  He made people nervous and angry (jealous?) by the intimacy with which He addressed God and spoke about Him.  It is impossible to read the words of Jesus and not recognize the importance of the Father-Son relationship.  Jesus' ministry is marked at His baptism at the beginning of His ministry and at His transfiguration by the words of the Father: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."  God loved His Son.  The Son loved His Father.

Yet, astoundingly, this perfect love had one moment that cut deeply into the heart of the Son (and I imagine just as deeply into the heart of the Father).  It strikes me that there are few wounds in this world as shattering as the wound of a broken relationship with a father.  Even Jesus experienced this.  On the cross, we read the words of Jesus, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?"  Jesus felt abandoned by His Father and it hurt so deeply that the One who could not stop calling the Holy and Perfect God of the Universe "Father" could not bring himself to use that name.  It hurt too much.

There is no relationship quite like the relationship between father and children.  Jesus at one point claims that anyone can be his brother or sister or mother, by doing the will of the Father (Matthew 3:31-35).  Only one relationship in Jesus' life is set apart.

I know that I have a long way to go, but I know that my God, my heavenly Father is for me.  He cares deeply about me and longs to see me step into abundant life.  I may have issues and problems, some of which come from growing up without a dad, some of which don't, but God loves me anyway.  He chooses me anyway.

In John 17:3, Jesus prays to His Father, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." So I pronounce this blessing over you: May you know goodness and greatness, and may you know God's Goodness and Greatness.