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A Job Worth Dying For

” For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”  Philippians 1-21 (NASB)

What would it be like to be in such a place mentally that you are considering death versus living?  Not because death is an escape from “life circumstances”, as with suicidal thoughts.  But rather, that both life and death are almost equally appealing in what they offer?

Paul, who was writing to the church in Philippi, bases the answer to this question as what is needed over what is desired.

“… to be with Christ…. that is much better…. yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary….. I know that I will remain and continue ….. for your ( the Philippians ) progress …..” ( vs. 1:23-25 )

This pressing on, this looking at his current dire circumstance ( he was in jail when he wrote this ), and still seeing reason to continue come from at least one thing: selflessness. Placing the needs of others above the desires of himself.

Sometimes, as an unemployed person, we ask ourselves things like:  Should I look to work for someone else or look into working for myself?  Both scenarios can be appealing and have something to offer, and we can struggle with where we should put our attention.

Now, this is not to say that deciding between submitting an application versus hanging up our own sign is at all the same on a spiritual level as is ministering to others or appearing before the Almighty.  But when we look at our decision making process, are we able to use the same calibration of thought? Can we look at both what we need versus what we want?

For many, what is “needed” is a stable 9 to 5 job working for someone else, even if the desire is to venture off on our own.  I am not suggesting that we don’t consider “doing our own thing”, only that we look at it from the perspective of what are we accountable to.  What is more legitimate?

If we have a family of any size, it can make sense to NOT go into business for ourselves, especially if we haven’t planned for it, no matter how much we desire it.  Instead, it can make more sense to find something more stable and that offers the benefits that are necessary to meed the needs of the family.

So even if we get tired of things, it can help to look past our circumstances ( extended unemployment sure can feel like jail, can’t it? ), and instead look at the options before us and look to move in the right direction out of selflessness not selfishness.

Suffering Through Unemployment

1 Peter 4:13  “…but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing …..”

When I first read this verse, I didn’t believe that being unemployed was anywhere near that same as the suffering of Christ. Whether by choice or because we are “downsized”, being unemployed doesn’t have the same sense of pain as does the pain that Jesus endured.

Or does it?

The tendency to think of suffering here is to think of the physical suffering, such as the pain His body was put through during His crucifixion. Surely “my suffering” is not like that.  But then I considered this: Why would Peter even mention it unless there existed the possibility of my suffering being similar in some way? Surely, if it was intended only for someone who was enduring great physical pain, would it really even be possible ( or necessary ) to say the words “keep on rejoicing” ?

So, in what other way could we “share the sufferings of Christ”?  What other sufferings are there ( Note that this is also plural, “sufferings” ) ?

Physical

This is obvious.  The pain of the beatings, scourging, and the entire crucifixion process would have been immense. Little else in the human experience can be compared to it.

Interpersonal

What about the rejection? The scorn? The faces turned against you when your cause is so right? The pulling away of your friends and followers as your circumstances force them away?

Mental & Spiritual

The anguish that drove Him to His knees in the garden of Gethsemane?  The intense grief and sorrow that overwhelmed Him to the point of blood mixed in His tears in His prayer to His heavenly Father? The mental, spiritual, and emotional pain that made Him cry out “Why has thou forsaken me? ”

Is any of my suffering like that?

Yes.  When I “don’t understand” and feel “abandoned” by God. Hoping for my circumstance to change, for “this cup to be taken from me”. Those times when despair creeps in as I am forced to resolve myself to the fact that I am where I am and it can only change as God so wills it.

Jesus understood. And there, my suffering is like Christ’s.

Now for the hard part……. keep on rejoicing…….

How Little Things Can Break You Down

Fire One!

I was looking in my email inbox the other day and one thing jumped out at me: I get a BOATLOAD of advertisements. In fact, I had so many solicitations for my time, attention, and (of course) my money, that I literally used a mass “delete” to get rid of them all.

Sure it is Christmas time.

Sure they (being the marketers) just want my “loyalty”.

But in the end, they have no idea what it is that we go through to keep our budget balanced.  They won’t be sitting down with me at the end of the month looking over statements and making sure that all of our dollars are accounted for and that there we didn’t overspend.

No, instead, the interest in what is going on in my life is really more about……. “hey, I thought you would like this new widget” or “don’t you think you would look great wearing these new shoes?!?”

The reality is, had I not been so disgusted (and overwhelmed) by the trove of advertisements, I may very well have run through some of them looking for a bargain.  I may even have used some of the coupons to buy even MORE gifts. But in the end, all that saved me was that there were just so many of them, that I knew that if I didn’t get rid of them all, I would have spent more time looking at things that I didn’t need that i would have ended up more frustrated with myself over wasted time than pleased with myself for any “savvy” shopping I might have done.

Each one of those advertisements was just like a little arrow pointed at our household budget; each hoping to score a hit.

Broken Arrows

An arrow is designed to be quick, sharp, and penetrating. Just like advertisements. And it only takes one to throw off a well laid out financial plan.

Each of us likely has some place in our life that opens a door up to thoughts of want instead of need. What do I mean by that?  Well, in God’s reality, He tells us that He will supply all of our needs…… in our reality, we tend to misunderstand what a need is and confuse it for a want…. .but still label it a “need”.

The difference is this:  Needs are things that our Lord knows have to exist in our life.  They aren’t the same for all of us, although I am sure that for many they are roughly the same.  Wants, on the other hand, are those things that get filtered through the selfish part of our heart and are more about what we would enjoy than require.

So when email advertisements, commercials, catalogs and the such start to clutter into our lives, they each are intentional arrows shot at our finances masquerading as needs, when really all they do is give us the “gimmie’s”. They are designed to penetrate past what our head is telling us, and quite often, shoot towards our emotions in some way.

It’s not easy to do, but breaking these arrows can be one of the better financial moves we make in our lives. In fact, have you ever noticed that the advertisements in your email are HUMONGOUS….. but the area to unsubscribe can be extremely hard to find?  And even when you do, you get asked ” Are you certain???”

Close the Door

In the end, my mass delete only removed the immediate temptation.  I know that if I don’t touch my email account again for a few days, it will inevitably fill up with more advertisements and I will have to go through the entire cycle again.  So instead of doing that, I will begin the process of unsubscribing to these marketeers.

Why?  Because I don’t need the temptation. Do you?

I am not saying that there aren’t some “good deals” out there, or that they shouldn’t be taken advantage of occasionally.  But unless you are disciplined enough, these very well designed communications can eventually break into your (hopefully) equally well designed budget.

Temptation comes in many flavors, so why not give yourself a chance and shut down the opportunity. Kill off the emails. Take your name off of the catalog mailing lists.  Close the door on these and know that in the end, if you really do need something, it will be provided for you. And that is a promise.

Philippians 4:19 “And God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

How Well Do You Know Yourself?

Taking A Look Back

I have been keeping journals about my life experiences for several years.  I don’t write in them daily, but I am pretty close to it.  The journals give me an opportunity to write about things that are going on in my life as well as give me a format to think over a subject.  In many ways, my journal is a repository of my spiritual, mental, and emotional growth.

Occasionally, I like to go back and look at some of my journal entries and reflect on those experiences that I have had in my life.I do this largely for two reasons, encouragement and growth. By going over these thoughts again it can be encouraging to see the changes that have taken place, and by taking some time to remind myself of where God is growing me, I can learn more about who I am and who I am becoming.

Recently I did this, and after reading some random journal entries I notice a pattern.  At times I operate out of fear.

What is fear?

In my own definition, fear is my assumption that “bad things” will happen from the unknown. It is being anxious about the possible negative consequences that could be lurking there.  It is not that I am wanting or necessarily expecting things to turn out badly, but at times when my mind lingers on “the unknown”, it has at times in the past become frustrating. I may try and think of what the right thing to do would be in a particular situation, but because of my irrational fear, I would get stalled and end up not moving forward into action.

In some ways, fear is a reflection of my lack of faith.

What are some areas in which in the past that I have chosen to be afraid?

• The economy 
• The morality of our nation
• Personal finances
• Job security and growth
• Failing at seeing Accountable Living become what I would like it to be

There are others, but these are some real examples of some of my own past fears. What I realized as I looked these over, though, is that if I were to take all of these things and wrap them all up into one word, it comes out to this:
 
Me.

My fear.

My failure.

My money.

My, my, my…… and the list goes on.

Putting It Into Perspective

I have at times put a lot of stock in me rather than trusting in God’s sovereignty.  By identifying this in myself I am hoping to continue pushing away from ”me” and more into my relationship with the Lord.  

So to help me in my pursuit, I will be reflecting on some verses which I believe hold more truth than many of us realize.

Philippians 4:6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.“

1 Peter 5:6-7 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all of your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”

How about you?  Have you been shaped at times by fears or anxieties?

How To Add Value To Your Day In 5 Minutes

“Make the most out of every day!”  How many times have we heard that? What does that even mean anyway? Isn’t it just as easy to say, “Just do it!”? 

In a society that has a tendency to get us to stretch a little thin in our time, we can begin to lose perspective on what it is that we are after.  Are we shooting for a specific goal?  Do we have some long-term objective in mind?  Are we looking for a conclusion to a problem that we are dealing with?

How can we keep it all straight if we are moving so quickly throughout our life?

The question really is, to “make the most” out of our day, what is something that can help up do that?

Give It Some Time

When it comes to our finances, we should always be looking for ways to enhance our opportunity to grow and mature. And while it may not be possible to get it all in at once, we can each give ourselves a push in the right direction if we will take a few minutes each day to do the following:

• Pray and submit our finances to God
• Acknowledge any shortcomings or temptations that we might be having
• Consider that there are others who have less than you do, and realize that you are blessed
• Remind yourself of your goals and respect them

It make not always be easy to find those five minutes during the day, but by giving ourselves that time of reflection, we help to keep our focus on track.

Running as hard as I know we all do, five minutes can seem like a lot.  But in reality, the exercise of remembering who we are, who we don’t want to be, where we do want to go, and how we think we can get there can make all the difference.

Remember, success comes in pieces.  Part of the strategy is to being willing to be humble while also keeping our mind’s eye on the direction in which we are headed.

Try giving yourself five minutes today. You might be surprised at how it changes the value of your day.

Why Forgiveness Is A Key To Financial Success

There is a term in the financial industry that has to do with allowing someone to be set free of their responsibility to the amount owed. It is generally referred to as a “forgiveness” of the debt. In short, it means that the person who was supposed to be paying back what they borrowed is instead released from either some or all of what was to be paid.

The debt is no more.

But what about those of us who have made serious financial mistakes? Have we taken the time to forgive ourselves, or are we still holding ourselves under some sort of mental penalty for the things that we have done wrong?

A lack of forgiveness of ourselves in our financial lives can make even our daily decisions harder. It can breed guilt and shame which can affect us in so many more ways than just our checking account. Left unresolved, it can actually make us afraid of money. It can keep us from making the most of our opportunities and instead leave us with fear of our financial situations.

Forgiveness Gives Us Peace

When we walk around with our hearts and minds replaying things that we have done wrong in our financial lives, it becomes easy to be afraid of making decisions. We worry about what might happen rather than just making a decision. We may even assume that we will fail “just like last time.”

By giving ourselves a break, though, we can instead learn from our past mistakes. Those times in which we failed or let someone down with our own mismanagement are only able to defeat us if we don’t learn from them.

Forgiveness Brings Healing

Going broke. Filing for bankruptcy. Bouncing checks. Getting into debt over our head. These are all things that can be pointed to as failings in our past.  Do it too much and we tend to believe that this is our fate; that we are doomed to continue repeating these until Judgement Day.

Yet, by taking an honest look at where we have failed and telling ourselves “yes I did those things”, but givings ourselves the leeway we need to grow we can begin to change. Our sense of being inept comes from looking only at our failures and not at our successes.

Forgiveness Opens Up Trust

Surely we have all given someone else a second chance after they have done us an injustice. Whether it is a parent and child, a friend to a friend, or even us to a complete stranger, forgiveness allows us to begin trusting the other person again.  We take the wrong and let it go and give that other person the chance to start “making it right”.

Can we do that for ourselves?  Absolutely.

Consider a time when you forgave someone for an infraction of some sort.  How did you do it? Did you badger them or did you quietly, in your heart, take what had been done wrong and say ” I forgive you”. 

Once done, the person who wronged us is given the chance to redeem themselves in some way, and if we can do this for ourselves, we open up this same mentality for our lives.

Forgiveness Lets Us Move On

Forgiving ourselves doesn’t mean that we will from them on always make the right decisions. In fact, the chances are good that we will want to kick ourselves for something else that we did wrong with our finances at some point in our lives.  It could be a bad stock investment, mistrusting a family member with an unsecured loan, or even just bouncing another check.

Regardless we need to give ourselves, not just others, some grace and understanding.

It doesn’t mean that we are condoning our past actions nor does it mean that once forgiven that we are then free to do as we please. No, forgiveness is instead where we pull up the stakes on guilt and shame and hopefeully begin making better decisions for ourselves.

How about you?  Are you still harboring some sense of guilt about something you did in your financial life? 

How do you plan on dealing with it?

Accountable Living: Make Learning A Priority

Opening the Door

The first financial magazine that I ever subscribed to was called “Your Money” and every month, with each new copy, I would devour it from cover to cover. It was from this magazine that I really learned all about the basics of money; how to budget, an overview of credit, and tips about how to begin making money work for me rather than the other way around. I don’t believe the magazine is in print any longer but for me it was instrumental in giving me some foundational thinking.

After a while I began reading books, attending classes and seminars, and participating in group discussions about a range of financial matters. For me, a thing that was intended only to give me a little better understanding started me down a road of learning about financial management. 

I eventually even began teaching classes on money management ( Shhh, don’t tell my pastor !) and continue to look for opportunities to help others learn about how to better manage their money by being good stewards of what they have.

It came in small steps but ones that have brought me from a place of ignorance to having a pretty good grasp on general financial matters. It doesn’t mean that I understand it all, but I know more now than I did then, and that is what is important.

In other words, I learned.

Make Some Time

There are very few things in this world that can impact a person as much as education does. The knowledge that we pick up opens up opportunities and gives us the ability to begin going in new directions in our life. It simultaneously challenge, instructs, and empowers us.

But it does require at least one basic thing:  initiative.  It is by this that we start making time in our lives for things that have a longer term impact. Without it nothing happens.  We don’t grow. We don’t achieve.  We become stagnant and eventually can even become obsolete.

And while formal education is an obvious route, try seeking out alternatives as well. An easy way to start can just be by reading some books or blogs or take advantage of free seminars in your area. 

The key to growing is making the time. We all have it, we just have to decide to do it.

Who Can Benefit?

The obvious answer is: YOU !

Got kids at home? Eventually the kids grow up and leave. Where do you want to be when that happens?

Landed a great new job?  How far will you advance if you don’t learn new skills eventually?

Out of work?  You are more appealing to an employer if you are sharpening your skills and learning new ones.

Need help with handling your finances?  Get control by turning to resources that give out great advice.

There are more benefits to learning than can be contained here, and it doesn’t always require a great amount of time or energy, but look to do it regularly.  Even just reading a non-fiction book once every other month on a
subject that you are interested in can be a great source of learning for anyone.

Sign Me Up!

As I said earlier, a formal education is great, but try considering some alternatives like these as well:

• Participating in a local group about a subject of mutual interest
• Trying out something new even if you know little to nothing about it
• Talking with people you know and trying out something that they enjoy
• Looking for areas of competence where you would like to grow and find out more about it
• Reading your local newspaper. There are often community learning and training sections full of ideas 
• Taking a good walk through your library. There are whole sections dedicated to interesting subjects
• Checking out a community learning center. Many have free or inexpensive courses.

Chances are, the opportunities won’t come to you as much as you will have to seek them out, but the impact can be far reaching. With a small time commitment you can improve you natural skills and talents, gain new insights, learn better management or parenting skills, or make a change to your financial situation.

You decide where you want to see some change.

Some growth.

And then just go for it.

Who knows?  You may end up being the teacher and not the student…… and bring someone else a new idea or two.

Any ideas on where could you be learning right now? 

Small Victories, Big Success

Where Are You Looking?

By general standards, when we look at where we are at financially, it can be easy to always be looking over the horizon.  In our imaginations we can see a victory that is made up something like this……

We fall into a wad of cash…..

All of a sudden we are debt free…….

And we have all the money we need….

So we get to live forever in a land of “No pressure”……

And then we look at where we are and we get down because it doesn’t look anything like that. Instead we have bills on the corner of the desk, a job that can be frustrating, and braces to pay for.  In other words, it’s not the dream that we would like to be living.

Don’t Aim High, Just Keep Shooting

I read an interesting baseball statistic today:  In professional baseball, between the years of 1995 and 2000,  200 batters hit more than 30 homers in a season ( which is quite impressive), but none of them played on a World Series winning team.
 
Who did?

The teams who played “small ball” and focused on just getting teammates on base and advancing the runner. You see, what was instrumental to success was not the out of the park home runs, but rather those small, successful endeavors and focus on short goals.

The same thing can be said about our financial lives. We may not be able to write out a check today to pay off all of our debts or wake up to a fully funded college savings account, but just like in baseball we can achieve short runs at our long term goal and advance forward.

Pay those bills on time.

Stay within your budget.

Keep contributing what you can to your  savings plan.

Keep working at your goals and you will succeed. It takes time, energy, and persistance, but the end results are well worth it.

Where are you finding your victories right now?

Accountable Living: How Others Can Bring You Down

Have you ever walked through a mall or convenience store and watched the people who are shopping in groups? Typically, one will begin to look at something and one or more of the group will come over and give some sort of opinion, and if a consensus is reached the item inevitably ends up at the register for checkout.

But if you stop and watch someone who is shopping alone, one of two scenarios tends to play out: They will either use the ”get in angst out” mentality or they will linger but not really buy. 

Now, I am not saying that I am a stalker by any means, but I do find people watching at a mall to be fun and rewarding source of learning.

The lesson here is, group thinking usually ends up with group spending.

Who’s That You’re With?

While it is normal to want to enjoy some time out with friends, it is something to think about when you consider which ones you want to go with if you are trying to control your spending.

In short, try thinking about those people that you are most likely to hit the mall with and see what you know about them when it comes to their money habits. It is important to recognize these tendencies because without even realizing it, their actions, attitudes, and behaviors could be influencing yours and derailing your from your own financial goals.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Which one of your friends are savers?
• Which one spenders?
• Who is the quickest to pull out a credit card?
• Who usually suggests “grabbing a bite to eat”?
• Who buys the most?  The least?
• Which one seems to have the most cards in their wallet?

By looking at our friends, not critically, but with critical thinking, hopefully we can begin to see how those with whom we spend our time could be inadvertently affecting our own success. These wonderful people may just not have the same goals that you do, and you should bear that in mind as you work on your own money habits.

In short, spenders like to hang out with spenders and savers with other savers. So if the group that you are hanging out with tends to be spenders, chances are good you will spend more than you intended the next time you are out.

Who Do You Want To Be With?

For many, we are already connected with someone who has opposing money beliefs. We call them “spouses” or “significant others”.

I am convinced that God intended for each of us to have an opposite in this area just so that He could watch us writhe in mental anguish as we watch the other behave in ways that we consider one step short of the insanity.  It’s called divine humor. What can you do?

Outside of them, though, for those who are interested in developing stronger stewardship skills, it may be something to look at in regards to the company that we are keeping and the situations that we put ourselves into. We have to use a little bit of wisdom and forethought to help keep us out of trouble.

So my suggestion is this:  Unless you are typically seen as the leader of your group ( and if you are, more power to you. Keep them on the straight and narrow !! ), try and position the time that you are in an arena where likely you will be encouraged to spend money, to doing so with people who are more inclined to being how YOU want to be.

It doesn’t mean that you have to hang out with people who root through trash cans looking for castoffs in the name of frugality.  Rather, it just means considering those with whom you are hanging out to see if they will be more or less inclined to help hold YOU accountable and vice-versa.

Try thinking over your “gang” with questions like these:

• Who is most likely to help you keep to your budget?
• Who can you feel comfortable saying, “no, I don’t need that” to?
• Who is most inclined to see your working on good money habits as a good thing?
• Who will respect you for the decisions that you are making and encourage you?
• Who cares more about seeing you do well than seeing you dressed well?

It is often said, bad company corrupts good morals.  With money it could be said, bad spenders corrupt good savers.

What do you think?

Accountable Living: When Are You Your Own Worst Enemy?

Wake Up!

Have you ever had one of those mornings ( or evenings for your night owls ) when you just don’t feel like getting up?  You would rather roll back into the warm blanket, reset the snooze button, and head back into la-la land?

Sure you have, we all do. It is something that we can all seem to relate to inside. That desire to just be left alone in a secure place regardless of the what we know we should be doing.

But what would happen if we were to indulge ourselves? 

Likely, we would end up running around trying to make up the time as we scramble for that morning cup of java and a little time for something to eat before heading out the door to fight (hopefully) minimal traffic. Or for you hard working stay at home types, knowing that the kids got the jump on you, you can literally spend the rest of the morning playing catch up. 

Sure, some of you may work from home or maybe you normally allow a bit of “sleep in” time into your morning routine  But for most of us there is an understanding that if we dally in getting up there is a consequence. Be it time lost or some other thing, that desire to stay right where we are can be very tempting, but usually not beneficial.

So when it comes to our finances, how often do we defeat ourselves before we even get started? When it comes to something important like balancing our checkbook, setting up a budget, or learning how our 401k works, how many times have we said secretly, “I can’t do that”… whatever “that” is and then stay right where we are at?

Many of us beat ourselves out of  good opportunities by simply not even starting or giving up before really ever trying. We would rather stay in our proverbial bed wrapped up in a blanket known as”our comfort zone”. But just like not getting up on time to face the day, staying in that place just because we are comfortable there is hazardous. When the alarm is going off telling us that we need to face the issue at hand, not doing so may seem like better thing to do because it is what we know, but truly it can be disastrous.

With our finances, refusing to get them under control is like a slow poison. It will continue to get worse and worse until eventually you lose it all.

What’s Your Blanket?

Why do we do this and what can we do about it?

For many of us it really comes down to analyzing that comfort zone.  This can be defined by a number of different things such as:

* ignorance ( intentional or otherwise)
* fear
* the belief that “it’s not my thing”
* that if left alone long enough, the issue will fix itself

The point is, get a handle on what your specific comfort zone is and learn what it’s about. This will help you to be constructive and break out of so that you can get on with what needs to be addressed.

Ignorance?

Sure you may not know how to do something, but in today’s society you would be hard pressed to not be able to find some sort of information about whatever you are dealing with.  In most cases a trip to your local library or bookstore, or a quick search on the internet can bring you to resources that will give you guidance.

Learn about the subject from easy to access resources. They are there just for this sort of reason.

Fear?

It seems cliché’, but there really is nothing to fear but fear itself.  Fear can be paralyzing, but the root of fear is uncertainty, and that can usually be handled much the same as with ignorance; by learning the facts. 

In and of themselves all of those pieces of information may not give you a total understanding of what may or may not happen, but chances are, if you bring those facts into your thinking, you will be more informed and have more certainty about the wisdom of your decision.

It’s “not my thing”?

Regardless of whether or not “it is your thing”, if it is affecting you…… it is “your thing”. Accepting that and moving on makes a lot of difference and likely will give you a better perspective. And here again, learning more about a subject or process can make a lot of difference. 

In some ways, it is only “not your thing” because you choose to make it that way. This is not always the case, but truly, when it comes to finances, each of us does have the ability to learn at least the basics. And by doing so, even if it is only a little, it has now become “your thing”. It just may not be your favorite thing.

It will take care of itself?

Truly, this is one of the worst levels of thinking.  In finance, as with your health, the chances are yes, it will resolve itself, but likely not in your favor.

Imagine trying this with a bad tooth in your mouth. Simple telling yourself that eventually it will go away will neither make it more real or more beneficial to you.  Is the pain, the frustration, the anxiety really worth it?  Is the end result of complete irrevocable damage what you would like to see happen? Probably not.

So before you allow yourself to go too far on this way of thinking, remember this: “We accomplish things by directing our desires, not by ignoring them” (anonymous).

Bright Eyed And Bushy Tailed

Will you take some time out today to think about where you are hitting a comfort zone when it comes to your finances?  Is there something that you know that you should be doing but haven’t done so?

Where could you use some help in dealing with a comfort zone?