Proverbs 22:2
The rich and poor have this in common: The Lord made them both.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Over the last few days, it has been obvious to me (and my wife) that God is showing me some of my wrong-thinking that He wants me to clean up. One of those wrong thoughts is my resentment towards people of wealth.
I am not really sure where it started. When I moved to Texas from Michigan, I didn’t know class warfare really existed. While in Michigan I wasn’t exposed much to rich and poor. Sure there were some families that had more and some that had less. We moved from there when I was 15 so it just wasn’t a huge part of our lives then.
When I moved to Texas it became very apparent that we weren’t among the wealthier crowd. I went from a high school in Michigan which had about 1300 total students. My high school in Texas had over 5000. Mixed in that 5000 were people who lived in shacks and people who lived in mansions. The oil boom had really made wealthy people and there were very large neighborhoods that you couldn’t get into unless someone living there put your name on a list at one of the three guard houses. It was amazing to learn how poor we were compared to some of these families. I specifically remember one of my fellow students who drove his Porsche 944 to school while I drove my eight year old Oldsmobile Cutlass.
I guess it is possible that over the years I developed a disdain for those who were affluent. Not just those who were affluent, but those who felt they were better than those of us who weren’t. Now I know that not everyone who has been given much in the way of financial resources thinks they are better than those of us who don’t have as much. It is our society who as always put the rich guy on tv and not the average guy. The rich guys are the ones you see sitting right behind home plate while you sit at home and watch the game on your average tv. Their tickets to that one game alone cost more than the tv you are watching it on. Money has always granted its holder influence for as far back as time is recorded.
I have another friend who got saved recently. He is a very successful (meaning wealthy) business man. He was successful before he was saved and he worked to make as much money as he could for many years. Now that he is saved, God has put it on his heart to give. Interesting that he gave an unknown sum of money to a missions charity which just happens to be the same charity I gave money to as well. I assume he gave much more than me because he was invited to sit next to the charity founder when he and his wife came to town to meet with donors. I wasn’t invited to the event at all. His money has given him influence. It has nothing to do with his wisdom, his business smarts or long-time service to this ministry. It is just that he gave a healthy amount of money to them.
Now much of this might sound like sour grapes on my part but it is not. It has been the thing in my life that keeps me focused on what is important. It is not important to be important to men. It is important to be important to God. People who are affluent and look down on those who aren’t have this God shaped hole in them. Many of them don’t want anything to do with poor people. They have been fooled into thinking that having money makes them happy and secure. The truth is that only God can bring true joy to their lives and God could take away all of that money in an instant. It is so obvious to see the ones that understand this. They have learned to worship God not their money because they know God is the source of all things. And what God gives, God can take away. They also understand that to whom much is given, much is expected. It is great to see those who use their wealth to help others in ways that the rest of us can’t.
But what does all of this mean to me. I realized that in some ways, the people who have obtained wealth are kind of like that girl that was oh so popular in high school. While everyone wanted to know her few people had enough confidence in themselves to go up and talk to her. I am sure there are some wealthy people who have been cursed by that worldly popularity as well. I heard the story of a professional baseball player who had become hugely suspicious of everyone he meets. He feels, and rightly so, that many people want to get to know him so they can get money from him. So he hides out in his very remote ranch here in Texas and no one can get anywhere near him. So that means that the only people he gets to meet are people who have enough wealth or influence that they can get near him. As far as I know, he is not a believer so the odds that someone will be able to reach him and offer him the heartfelt hand of God is very low.
It is on that very note that God has spoken to me. While I am not defined as being rich by at least one of our political parties God has blessed my finances and my wife and I live comfortably. I have an opportunity to meet people who are wealthy and realize that God has put me in that position not to be put off by their potential snobbery, but to be the warm and welcoming hand of God to them. God wants me to see them as His people just as much as we do the “not so fortunate.”
I used to spend much of my time keeping track of every dollar that was spent out of my household. My motivation was to make more money and become a more “important” person. God has freed me from my worldly aspirations and blessed me with His aspirations. We are all God’s people and he cares about the salvation of the wealthy just as much as he cares about the salvation of the poor. For it was through the passage that opened this note that it finally hit me. We have something in common with Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and the poorest people on earth. God created all of us and we all have an equal chance of resting in God’s presence and grace.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
We Work For God
We Work for God
In a recent discussion with my wife, we both came to realize who we truly work for. We work for God. In the world today, many of us are defined by what we do for a living. If you think about it, what is just about the first topic that comes up when you meet someone new or see someone you haven’t seen in a while. It usually centers around their jobs or careers. If you ask someone to tell you about themselves without asking about their work, it will frequently come up first. Most of us work for someone, meaning we are not self-employed. This means we have a boss. It also means that if we do not keep the boss happy, he/she might ask us to find employment elsewhere. For those of us who have been through that experience, it can be very frightening, humbling and life-changing.
I once had a job where I was so underutilized by my managers, who happened to be the owners of the company, that I was frequently frustrated; and it showed. The frustration was from the fact that I thought in order to make a difference at that company, I had to put my professional experiences and talents to their full use. I felt that way because I wanted to be appreciated and stay gainfully employed. The frustration I felt came just about every day when my ideas for bettering the company fell upon deaf ears. I was being paid a healthy amount of money to run at about 50% of my professional capacity. Things that were obviously sub-optimal were tolerated and my attempts at bringing positive change to the company were usually met with fierce opposition.
The reason my frustration showed was mostly due to my fear of not being worthy of my pay and my pride. I once read in a book by Pastor Robert Morris that fear is at the root of pride. My fear was a fear of insignificance. My pride was a defense mechanism against people seeing me as being just another executive who has an opinion. While my fear could have been a healthy one, it was terribly misdirected. My fear should have been fear of God. I should have feared not pleasing God and representing him to the best of my abilities at my place of employment. God gave me that job to be a light in that mostly darkened workplace. But since my fear was of rejection, I produced a defense shield of pride that preceded me each time I entered the room. Even on the days where I was willing to be corrected or overruled, I had so set the precedent of pride, it was already in the minds of my coworkers.
The Word tells us to go be lights to the world (Matt 5:14-16). As believers, that is our job and God is our ultimate boss. If we act as fools when we should be acting as those who have the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22), God will either take us out of that environment or allow us to suffer through the consequences of our prideful actions. If you believe that everything in your life comes from God, then the job you have comes from Him and we are there to do His work.
Eventually for me, the Spirit made me deal with my pride. God gave me a different job after a several month bout of unemployment. He let us go through all of our savings and He gave me my new job the exact month that our cash ran out. It was not a fun lesson to learn, but learn it I did. The enlightenment I received was that it was up to my managers to use me to my fullest potential. It was not up to me to “enlighten” them. They hired me to perform the job they want me to perform, not the one I think I should be performing. My job is to serve them as best I can, share with them my experiences and support their decisions with gladness. That is the light that God wants us to be. We must resign ourselves to the fact that God has a purpose in our lives and we will be employed when and where He wants. Our jobs are to be the best light we possibly can while we are where He puts us. That means an absence of pride and fear when things don’t always seem to go as we think they should. After all, we work for God and He is the best boss any of us could ever have.
In a recent discussion with my wife, we both came to realize who we truly work for. We work for God. In the world today, many of us are defined by what we do for a living. If you think about it, what is just about the first topic that comes up when you meet someone new or see someone you haven’t seen in a while. It usually centers around their jobs or careers. If you ask someone to tell you about themselves without asking about their work, it will frequently come up first. Most of us work for someone, meaning we are not self-employed. This means we have a boss. It also means that if we do not keep the boss happy, he/she might ask us to find employment elsewhere. For those of us who have been through that experience, it can be very frightening, humbling and life-changing.
I once had a job where I was so underutilized by my managers, who happened to be the owners of the company, that I was frequently frustrated; and it showed. The frustration was from the fact that I thought in order to make a difference at that company, I had to put my professional experiences and talents to their full use. I felt that way because I wanted to be appreciated and stay gainfully employed. The frustration I felt came just about every day when my ideas for bettering the company fell upon deaf ears. I was being paid a healthy amount of money to run at about 50% of my professional capacity. Things that were obviously sub-optimal were tolerated and my attempts at bringing positive change to the company were usually met with fierce opposition.
The reason my frustration showed was mostly due to my fear of not being worthy of my pay and my pride. I once read in a book by Pastor Robert Morris that fear is at the root of pride. My fear was a fear of insignificance. My pride was a defense mechanism against people seeing me as being just another executive who has an opinion. While my fear could have been a healthy one, it was terribly misdirected. My fear should have been fear of God. I should have feared not pleasing God and representing him to the best of my abilities at my place of employment. God gave me that job to be a light in that mostly darkened workplace. But since my fear was of rejection, I produced a defense shield of pride that preceded me each time I entered the room. Even on the days where I was willing to be corrected or overruled, I had so set the precedent of pride, it was already in the minds of my coworkers.
The Word tells us to go be lights to the world (Matt 5:14-16). As believers, that is our job and God is our ultimate boss. If we act as fools when we should be acting as those who have the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22), God will either take us out of that environment or allow us to suffer through the consequences of our prideful actions. If you believe that everything in your life comes from God, then the job you have comes from Him and we are there to do His work.
Eventually for me, the Spirit made me deal with my pride. God gave me a different job after a several month bout of unemployment. He let us go through all of our savings and He gave me my new job the exact month that our cash ran out. It was not a fun lesson to learn, but learn it I did. The enlightenment I received was that it was up to my managers to use me to my fullest potential. It was not up to me to “enlighten” them. They hired me to perform the job they want me to perform, not the one I think I should be performing. My job is to serve them as best I can, share with them my experiences and support their decisions with gladness. That is the light that God wants us to be. We must resign ourselves to the fact that God has a purpose in our lives and we will be employed when and where He wants. Our jobs are to be the best light we possibly can while we are where He puts us. That means an absence of pride and fear when things don’t always seem to go as we think they should. After all, we work for God and He is the best boss any of us could ever have.
Where's Your Bottom
As the title of this blog indicates, I found my bottom in early 2004. Since then I have lived for Christ and not for me. My life now has more meaning than it ever did before. I feel more fulfilled even though I lost many of the things I thought I was living for.
Several sources outside of the Bible played a part in my transformation. Here are two of them:
Several sources outside of the Bible played a part in my transformation. Here are two of them:
- Loose That Man and Let Him Go by T.D. Jakes
- The Blessed Life by Robert Morris
Once I gave up my will and started seeking to live like Christ, God has blessed me more than I could ever imagine. He has protected me, supplied me with all I need and brought me a wonderful godly woman who prays for me daily. I have a life now I never thought I would have after all of my failings. Thank God for being in control. He let me find my bottom so I would stop living for me and live for him.
Have you found your bottom? If so, I would love to hear your story. I am in the process of gathering stories of people coming to Christ after finding their bottom and how their life has been transformed by that event in their life. I plan to group these stories together and share them with others so please understand if you post your story out here, you are giving me the right to reuse it.
John 16:33 (NIV)
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
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