Actions speak louder than words

What you do with what you have reveals what you believe.  Growing up I had a three ring binder that said this “Actions speak louder than words”.  At the time my adolescent mind could not understand the insight I carried to class each day.  I thought it was just a cool statement.  I also knew it was profound, but I could never fathom the wisdom of the ages tied up in that sentence.

In today’s’ age of nuclear information and expert explosions of statements there is never a shortage of words.  They abound more than mosquitoes in the bayou!  Yet what does seem to be missing are those pesky actions, the stuff that actually takes ideas into reality and develops the difference between intentions and veracity.  I think the majority of us live in an intentioned world.  We need to change that!

But changing things is hard and changing something for the long term is even harder.  Something needs to grab our attention.  Something like a vision of the future, a memory montage of the past or a cold hard slap of the present reality.

When it comes to finances I think we need all three, a stroll down memory lane with those wise older people that remember life before being racked with debt.  That knew it was wise to save and came up with phrases like “save for a rainy day”. 

We also need a slap to the financial face that wakes us up to see the present reality we are actually in.  When everybody says it’s smart to budget our money, get out of debt and save but the stats show the majority of American’s live paycheck to paycheck (over 55%).  That means we are not awake to the reality of our financial future.

And speaking of that future, we need to look hard at where we are going.  It does not take any level of education past 1^st grade to understand that you can’t spend more than you make.  But from the household all the way up to the government we are doing just that.  Numbers like overspending to the degree of 113% of our annual household income is insane!  But on the local level this is what we are doing.

Listen to a national news station about our government finances and you will hear phrases like “reducing” the deficit”.  What is that?  Simple it’s reducing the amount of spending more than we make.  Sounds good right?  Well not really because all we are trying to do is just REDUCE it!  There is NO talk of eliminating it, just managing the overspending. 

And each day, week, month and year we over spend we build our debt.  We are actively and aggressively building our countries destruction.  We are not building a better future; we are actually building a time bomb.  There is no action that eliminates the deficits (overspending) for good and there is no talk of paying back our debt, no!  Let’s not even go there, cause being in debt is normal.  Being a financial slave is the standard!  Well all of that is causing us to not just build the bomb but to rush its completion.

Yes I know it’s easy to blame the government, but that does not get us anywhere.  We must simply change!  We must invest in our future by investing in the way we do things.  We must save!  We must stop spending more than we make.  We must get out of debt!  And then demand our leaders do the same.

Here are some key questions I want you to consider:

1.  How are you handling your present finances, are you working on staying on a budget?

2.  What are you doing to handle your past, your debt that trails behind you?

3.  How are you investing for the future? What steps might you need to take to improve the way you invest?

4.  What long-term goals do you have for your financial life?  How are you progressing in accomplishing these goals?

5.  Do you consider yourself to be more of a spender or a saver?  Explain.

6.  Read Proverbs 6:6-8, 21:20, Thessalonians 3:10 and Matthew 25:14-30.  Share a time in your life when you learned about the importance of planning for the future.

7. What are some of the obstacles you’ve encountered that hinder your ability to invest for the future?

All In the Family

The other day we were in a family discussion about school with my daughter.  It centered around some extra school work she would have to do otherwise she would have to see a tutor.  My son who has been blessed to have that tutor for many years piped up and said “WELCOME TO THE FAMILY!!!”

If you currently owe money of any sort to any person or company at any amount; then “WELCOME TO THE AMERICAN FAMILY!!!”  Debt is so normal now that all the people I speak with don’t ever recall a time without debt.  In other words, being strapped or broke is normal in today’s’ society.  It’s weird to think of someone buying a car with out going into debt.  Odd to consider people buy furniture without credit.

We have adjusted, adapted, and changed how we view finances to include debt.  That mindset has us working more and more to pay for the stuff we took home months ago.  We really don’t work for ourselves anymore; we actually go to work to simply hand that money to someone else.  By the way, this adjustment is not for the better.  It has bound us up, not just in the present but also in the future.

These decisions have caused us to become enslaved to money which has become our standard today.  But God did not provide us this tool in order for us to serve it!  Instead He wants it to serve us.  Yet at the core, the problem is and will never be money itself.  Money is amoral and does only what it’s human counterpart causes it to.  I can build OR destroy lives with it.  That same twenty-dollar bill you put aside for savings might have also been used to buy drugs.  It’s the human operator that changes the effect of money. 

So at the core of poor finances is a person with a heart focused on the wrong thing.  And usually they expect more money to solve that heart problem but it never does.  More money only magnifies the problem.  In order to be wealthy you first have to start with your heart motives and gain God’s perspective on money as your own.  What is God’s perspective on money?  I am glad you asked, first it’s a tool!  Second it’s to serve us so we can serve God and third it’s there to bring joy.

I would recommend you take time this week to gain a Godly perspective on money by reading and talking over the following Bible passages.

Day 1:  Proverbs 22:7

Day 2:  Matthew 6:19-24

Day 3:  1 Timothy 6:1-10

Day 4:  Ecclesiastes 5:8-20

Day 5:  Romans 13:8-10

Day 6:  Luke 16:1-15

Day 7:  Proverbs 21:20

Baseball and Life

There is a hard reality that we live each day.  Its something I struggle to understand and live out each moment I fail.  Yet it’s just plain true.  I know it in part, at least enough to speak about it.  I understand it in the academic sense.

It’s baseball season now and I coach my son’s U8 rookie team. I love this age because it’s all about having fun, forging the future of how to play the game and learning the basics of competition.  The boys I coach are all about that hit they got, how many bases they ran and the snack after the game!  But often they fail. They fail at fielding the ball.  It rolls between their legs or they let a pop fly drop to the ground a foot away.  Each time we talk about the play and how they failed and what to do different next time.  Next time, hummm remember there is always a next time when we fail! 

It’s funny how I see these boys.  As their coach I only see the potential, possible player.  I see what they are becoming and what they can become.  I think of Shaun; a first year player that is excelling as a Catcher but fails almost each play.  I think of Jake one of the smallest kids on the team, also a first year player.  He has been hit two times in the face for failing to put the mitt in the right place.  I think of Evan, James, Riley and my Son and only SEE what they are becoming.  I actually expect them to fail.  I know that each of them are learning and in turn they are enjoying the game of baseball.  That is until they fail. 

When they fail they change.  That mistake seems to overtake them, before the play they were smiles and expectant to do their best.  After the failure their heads are down, their smiles are gone and they are dreading the next play.  I will come to them and encourage them, explain what happened so they understand, remind them of the fundamentals and often “tickle” them to get their joy back!  Did I mention that I love this age!  It’s because they laugh when I try to put that smile back on their faces.  Can’t imagine an adult enjoying a good “tickle” on the field to get their joy of the game back.  I think we can learn something from kids!

See, they see themselves as the failed play.  Yet I see them as a growing and potential baseball player.  So I asked God, “is that how you see me, do you see me as I see my boys?”  The answer was a resounding “YES!!!”  In Christ God only sees me as that potential growing Christian, not the failed, useless washed up player!  All my mistakes and failures are simply viewed by God the Father as me learning the game of “LIFE.”

It’s at this very point I struggle to understand and live out how God sees me.  It’s really, I mean really hard to live as if my failures and sin don’t define me any more.  See when I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ I am never again seen by God in heaven as a sinner.  I may sin, but that sin is not a defining moment that renders me useless.  Like me as the coach in baseball even though I fail the Father’s view of me is still optimistic and possible.  And just like my players when I sin or fail I often can’t see past my trespass.  I tend to cover myself in that mistake as if it’s who I am.  I identify myself with that moment and resign to walk around with that scarlet letter the rest of my life.  Only thing I am missing is God’s agreement with my assessment of my failed outlook on life.

Funny how He does not EVER agree with that.  Thank YOU God!  Most of us think God would say “You just failed again and as I suspected I now condemn you to that identity, you loser!”  As much as He has every right to condemn me for my failures He only sees me like I see my boys.  Full of possibility, full of life, full of Christ, learning and growing though each mistake.  I just have to see myself as God the Father sees me in Christ.  And accepting His view of my life is one of hardest things I have ever tried.  In Christ I am a new creation and I don’t have to view my life like I did before He was in my life.  That's the new attitude I need to let soak into my life each time I fail.  Especially when I fail at the same thing over and over again!  This is grace.

Now without Christ in my life it’s a different situation entirely and I will save that for another time, but for now think about this.  How well would my boys learn the game without me on the field coaching them?  It would most likely resort to a melee of bats being used as swords and balls being thrown as missiles, chaos would abound.  If you don’t know Jesus, I would suggest you get to know Him and surrender your chaotic life to Him.  Put Him on the field of your life so those messes will turn in to lessons!

For those who already know Jesus, it’s up to us to change our attitude on failure and let Him encourage us after each failed life play.  It’s up to us to see it as a lesson learned, to pickup our thoughts from the floor of failure and realize that we might have been knocked down but we are not out of the game!

“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.” (Romans 6:6-7)