Actually, can you make it a quarter? Inflation and all.
Apart from being cold—I’ve beat that horse to a bloody pulp already—this is also the time of the year when everybody has their hands out.
Taxes, insurance renewals, taxes, homeowners’ association, taxes, and so on.
My wallet’s gotten so light that I’m down to one package of ramen noodles a day, and only run the van’s motor for 20 minutes each night to stay warm!
To quote my old college roommate, “I’m po! So poor I can’t afford the o and the r.”
When I used to own a legitimate business—I’m still self-employed but this hardly counts as a business—I used to agonize over cash-flow. Much weeping and gnashing of teeth ensued from worries about money. But now I know that the reason God let me chase my tail all those years was to teach me a lesson.
Ya see, money just ain’t that big a deal. God does provide, and He does it in amazing and sometimes very ordinary ways.
I like to tell the story of when I was in college, my dear mother would send me a card every now and again with a ten or a twenty in it. Man, those were way-up-on-the-proverbial-hog times! A bag of beef-n-cheddars and a sixpack of Mountain Dew, comin’ up!
[FOB Jack could tell you stories]
But all was not joy and carb-loading, because it seemed that every time I got a card, a bill showed up in the same mail.
“Dammit! Why is it whenever I get a card from Mom, I get a bill too?”
Then it hit me…
“No dummy! Every time you get a bill, you get a card.”
And so it has been—mostly—ever since. I don’t worry anymore. If my pockets are so turned out that my briefs are showing, I just smile.
Why?
Because I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor, but when it comes right down to it, I’m the wealthiest guy I know.
If someone has their hand out, it’s my job to fill it. Yours too. No matter the thickness of our wallet, we are just pipes that God uses to make his blessings flow.
It’s a lesson I learned the hard way, and if I ever forget it, God will reliably slap me upside the head.
One of the vigil readings for today is from Deuteronomy:
When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. 21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. 22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.
~Deut. 24:19-22 NIV
So after lunch, no matter what kind of service you got, leave a good tip, huh? You never know if that person might be fighting off a whole pack of wolves at their door.
Oh, and in case the NSA is reading this, let me just state for the record that I think the folks at the IRS are the best human beings on planet earth! Really, I’m so grateful for them I could just fizz!
