So, I was doing some thinking this morning about just how awesome my life is and how much I have to be thankful for. I was just thinking about how Tiffany is getting braces tomorrow and how fortunate I am to be able to afford that. Now, I did have help from her bio dad, but still, for 2yrs. or so, I am going to have to pay for half of the monthly payments to keep those bad boys on her teeth.
Recently, I was getting bummed out about how I have to clean houses every Friday. It's getting hard on my body, and my body is letting me know. This is very hard for me to take because I exercise and think of myself as being, somewhat, in shape. None the less, I was thinking, "There would be no way for me to even be able to think about braces if it wasn't for my cleaning jobs." Then, I got to thinking about how these cleaning jobs have allowed me to pay off hospital bills that would have went to collections. Man, we are getting it done and are financially in the best place we have been, ever! I do give consideration to the fact that we had to let a lot go 2 years ago and take a path that some find non-Christian, shameful and wimpy- Bankruptcy.
Thinking of all I thought I needed and had to be back then. Needing the bigger, nicer house. Needing to have nice things. Needing to go out to eat all the time. I thought that I deserved all of these things. I was completely wrong. The desire and need for these things is what caused us to be so deep in debt that we totally lost control. We rented the house we were buying just to get in a bigger home that was further in the country. Well, it didn't take long for our renters to ditch out on paying rent, which left us struggling to make two car payments, along with the load of other bills we had acquired. The extra cost in gas to go to town was something we didn't expect, either. We were deep in over our heads and soon became the ones who were ditching out on our bills. So, bankruptcy was the path for us. We lost both houses and had to become renters ourselves. But it was the best choice we ever could have made!
We have been able to keep our heads above water. Sometimes, just barely, but we are doing it! It hasn't been easy and it hasn't happened without a lot of hard work. On a side note, we don't have charge cards and only ever did have one- Sears (paid and cut up). We buy what we can afford. If we want it, we wait until we have the money to buy it. And we don't try to keep up with the Jones'. I shop at Goodwill and get my clothes on clearance. We buy cars off of Craigslist at income tax time (no car payment is the stuff!), my kids don't do the latest and greatest things, I don't purchase everything they want, and we ALWAYS give 10% of our income back to God. Do I want to keep up with the Jones'? Oh, heck yeah- some days. Do I want to live in a 1200 sq. foot, 1980's, three bedroom, 1 1/2 bath home for the rest of my life? Not necessarily. My heart desires the nice, fancy, roomy house that some of my friends have. Yes, it does! But I love our $750 payment, and our awesome landlord. I mean, the Lord couldn't have blessed us with a better one. But just when my heart starts to desire more and my mind wants me to do less work, I think about all that I already have and how much my hard work has helped us get there. I know that I can have a nice, roomy home,one day, when the kids are grown, and it's just Bill and me. Or maybe we won't ever have the nice, roomy home. We will still have a home- a special place that Bill and I make our own. And we will continue to work hard.
We don't have health insurance. We don't have a new car. We CAN'T keep up with the Jones' and I'm alright with that. But what we do have is an unwavering faith in Jesus Christ that if we continue to live our lives changed, transformed, and filled with a desire for others to feel this same contentment, we will be just fine. God has taken care of us up until now, and he will continue to take care of us for the rest of our lives.
This morning, me and a friend were talking about our spinning class and how the resistance works on the bikes. During the course of our workout, we are asked to turn 5 to the right, or turn 10 to the right. This tightens the resistance and makes the workout harder. Well, there are some in the class who never tighten the resistance, making their workout easier than others. They don't have to work as hard as we do. This frustrates the instructors. As a "client" of their gallery, everyone who spins there, or works out there, are representatives of that gallery. And you know what she said that had such a deeper meaning to me spiritually? She said, "...and people complain that they don't lose weight. I don't want them going around telling people that they spin here. It makes us look bad."
When I got home, that comment hit me like a ton of bricks. This is exactly how I feel about MY Jesus Christ. In life, people don't want to do the hard work that it takes to be a representative of Jesus Christ. They don't want their "bike" to have any resistance. They get saved, go to church, and are o.k. with that. They make no heart change. No lifestyle change.
Being saved is not a piece of cake- it takes hard work. In order to get closer to Jesus, to feel contentment, to understand why people like me are the way they are, you have to change. Scripture tells us, "...with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desire, to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." Ephesians 4:22-24. It's a tall order to change everything we once were, without God, into something completely different (holy and righteous), but as hard as it is, we should be diligently working hard,-turning those 10 turns to the right- to become the person that Christ made us to be, and whom He loves completely. He is our maker, and wants us to benefit from all that He has to give. He just requires a little bit of hard work along the way, to help get us there. He's not gonna make us do the hard work, but we will reap the benefits if we do.
Tell me what you think....
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