Resourcing

As long as I can remember individuals have resourced me in my discovery of truth. By that i mean they have shared personal stories, articles, books, opinions, friendships with others they respect, etc. 

I have come to realize that one of the greatest gifts I can give to others is a resource to help them along in their journey of discovering truth. I have also discovered that no one discovers truth on their own, we need others.

I don’t always know how best to resource others as if I have secrets no one else has. I look at what I have and give to those who express a desire to receive.

How do you resource others?

What resources have you received that you are grateful for?

The landowner

Jesus tells a story about the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 20. In this parable Jesus uses a landowner, a foreman and several workers to teach us about his kingdom. I love the story because it teaches so much about the landowner. Things like he is the one who is in control. He is the one who takes steps to invite others to join him in his labors. He searches out others to join him. He even invites others to join him with only a few hours to go in the work day. He agrees to compensate those who join him with fairness. He speaks truth to those who join him, even when his workers drift into selfishness and untruth. He is generous.

The workers don’t “deserve” to work for the landowner. The workers had a streak of selfishness. The workers chose not to celebrate when others were blessed even though they were being treated with fairness.

And yet the landowner extended and they received grace and their lives were changed that day, if only for that day.

May I learn to celebrate when others are being blessed. May I learn to practice gratitude rather than grumbling.

Finances – credit cards

I can remember how proud I was when Candace and I received our first credit card. We had grown up. We had reached adulthood. We were in for a ride we hadn’t planned on. We agreed that we would pay it off every month. We agreed that we wouldn’t use it as a crutch. We agreed we would use it for emergencies. We had good intentions. And then it happened. I mean everyone was doing it. We didn’t pay it off one month. And then another month. It was weird looking back and trying to figure out where we had gone wrong. And how we had bought into the idea that “we needed a credit card.” We didn’t. And when we experienced enough pain or frustration at trying to become somebody we weren’t, we cut our credit cards. It was weird like I was quitting a drug or alcohol habit. All sorts of mental tricks played on our minds. But a calming voice kept speaking, “You were saved to be free.” And the truth is we weren’t free. We were slaves as long as we kept buying into the lifestyle we had allowed ourselves to get accustomed to. Now it has been years since we have had a credit card and the freedom is beautiful. It is kind of like trying to describe a sunset to someone on the phone…it’s hard to do. 

So how are credit cards working for you?

Are there some untruths that you are using to justify your credit card usage?

Are you free in your finances?

finances – lesson learned

Ok, so I have made some pretty foolish decisions regarding money. At the time of crisis the problems we (my wife and I) were facing definitely seemed larger than they actually were. In spite of the challenges, there is something beautiful that happens when financial struggles come: purification. 

I needed purifying. God says we cannot serve both God and money. It is true. My things had hold of me rather than the other way around. I found it way too easy to say, “yes” to more credit.

When I wrote it down our budget on paper we could afford “it”. When life actually happened I had not figured in enough of a safety net. Who knew things would break down? 

Shortly after we were first married we made the decision to purchase a brand new car. A car with zero miles on it. A car with shiny paint and no rust. A car with tires that actually had tread on them. The car we had worked but my pride told me we needed a nice car. Apparently nice cars have payments attached to them. Apparently there is some master plan in the universe that I would be violating if I didn’t purchase a brand new car since we  were newly married. I mean every other successful married couple did it. So, we drive to the Ford dealer and signed our freedom away and we were handed the keys to a brand new car. There was apparently something wrong with the car because it did not scratch the itch of my pride as well as I had hoped. We struggled along and when we got tired of struggling we sold the car and with it regained an element of freedom we had lost. Stinking pride.

I grew closer to God through the pain we experienced with our loss of freedom (payments came every month, regardless of how I felt). I also gained more appreciation for the teachings of God’s word. Who knew the borrower is the slave of the lender still applied.

Many purifications have happened down through the years. Now I ask a different set of questions when my pride kicks in telling me I need the new shiny thing. Questions like: How is this going to help me serve God’s kingdom? Is this a wise choice at this time? I even ask friends for their opinion if it a large purchase under consideration.  Will I really enjoy this or is it just an accumulation that will sit in storage after the first few months? You get the idea.

finances – top ten mistakes

When it comes to finances it seems I didn’t realize that I could have learned from other people’s mistakes. I felt compelled to make my own. And now that I have made them I somehow feel compelled to share them with the hopes that maybe you can do what I didn’t.

TOP TEN MISTAKES

10. Not living with a plan

9. Believing that ten percent was the goal

8. Believing faulty math…it works on paper

7. Believing the ads that I was missing out

6. Not being disciplined

5. Not trusting I would become a slave to my lender

4. Believing I could not live without debt

3. Not modeling for our children

2. Letting this be an issue that separated my wife and I rather than joining us

1. Not putting God first

Sunday Service

Sunday as part of our gathering we shared some of the ways we redirected our energies this Christmas season. The challenge was to take the resources for one gift we would normally give and redirect it to someone outside our normal circle of influence. 

I was blown away. The number of people at the service was down dramatically due to the blizzard raging outside. The stories started and they continued. 

Our family is going to do some micro-financing on Christmas day through Kiva.org

A couple that was part of our community called me to tell me they put an ad on craigslist in the free section asking if there was anyone who wanted to share a Christmas meal with them. They received 2000 replies, mostly from encouragers. They settled on 2 single women. A chef volunteered his services, someone else volunteered to provide stockings, someone else volunteered to provide gifts if children were involved. They plan on doing it again at Easter.

Another couple got their house church to adopt three families as part of Love inc’s deal. With their two children they gave each child a budget to spend on World Vision’s catalog of options.

Another couple donated some supplies to a local mission and directed some money to a local agency that helps with home heating needs.

Some dropped off a basket to a local school for some families who have been receiving bag dinners.

Another house church sent some boxes of supplies down to New Orleans to a lady they met while on the mission trip.

Another family shared how they gave some money through World Vision to buy some animals for a group of people in Africa. They did “projects” through the year and raised more than $800 to give away. 

Another couple heard what we were doing on Kiva.org and gave us some money to add to what we were doing because they don’t have internet access.

Another person gathered some money to help with house payment challenges and then set a goal for 2009.

A few people shared how they have received help this season and how grateful they were.

There were more stories. It was amazing to hear how many people give. How many give selflessly.

When is the church at its best? When it sees people in need and does something to meet that need.

Amen.

Local News

Dan Currie is the Senior Pastor at the First Baptist Church of Hastings. He has been experiencing some very severe health challenges over the past several months. Pray for Dan and the community of faith at First Baptist Church.

Thornapple Valley Church held their second Rockin’ Christmas under the leadership of Brian Mote. It was loud, well done, and Rockin’. Brian worked with some incredibly talented musicians to pull this off.

I am reminded of how rich we are with the communities of faith we have serving Jesus Christ in the greater Hastings area.

Stuff I am hearing

I received a call this morning from a lady who wanted to mail our church a thank you card for a couple of reasons. 1. some people provided some wood for their home heating needs. 2. a young man from our community of faith remembered her and her five children by name even though it had been three years since seeing them…she was impressed.

A young man from our community of faith donated $100 to help provide dinner meals to children from a local school.

A woman from our community of faith started mentoring a child from a local school. Then she learned that there were some children who needed a dinner to take home with them so they would have a meal that evening, so she got a list of names and began bagging up dinners for the kids to take home with them. She also connected some of these children up with winter clothing.

I am so proud to be serving with this group of people.

my friend

My friend, Paul Dudley, leads a community of faith in Lynchburg, Virginia. You have to read this blog written about an event they recently hosted.

Very cool to hear what’s going on with them from an outside source.

vacation – celebrating 25 years of marriage

What an incredible time I was able to spend with my wife. We went to Mazatlan Mexico for a week. Highly recommended for a time in the sun. We stayed at the Best Western Posada Freeman (Check out the mexican tourism website for significantly reduced rates) with a view of the ocean. The people of Mexico are beautiful. We speak less than ten words of Spanish between us but it wasn’t a problem. The food is tasty and sometimes quite interesting. We read less than ten words of Spanish between us also. We walked all over. We sat in the Plaza. We enjoyed the sunsets. We watched the parade introducing the Carnaval candidates.

The crazy thing is it has been 25 years since we stood up and said, “I do.” We have accumulated this huge bank of shared memories yet it seems like yesterday when we set off for our honeymoon.

We were walking along the Malecon and a street salesman approached us with an opportunity to purchase an afternoon excursion and when I said, “No” he asked what we intended to do for fun during our stay. I pointed at my wife. He stopped and turned to someone else. It’s true I really enjoy my wife. 

I am just hoping that the next 25 go a little bit slower.