People often tell me that I am talented and gifted, and in some areas I am. Money management is not one of those areas. I can honestly own up to that fact simply because it has been shown to be true over and over through the years. One of the many reasons I am so grateful for my wife, Debbie, is that she is a very capable money manager.
In my young adult years I was ashamed to be so poor at managing my meager financial resources yet I would not seek help from my parents. The consequence was that during my freshman year at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) I worked at three part-time jobs and lived on candy bars and Pepsi Cola. My parents would have been shocked to know this, of course, and I didn’t want to use any more of their meager resources than necessary (nor did I want to hear a “sermon” from my Dad on money management). They were operating a boarding school for severely disabled adults, and they needed everything they had just to keep it afloat. Of course, they would have helped, had I asked.
Instead, the three jobs and the long hours they occupied in my life, plus my subsequent tiredness, took their toll on my studies; and in the summer following my first year I dropped out and joined the Navy. My parents were devastated by this decision, as this was in 1968, and the Vietnam War was taking the lives of many of our nation’s young men. As it turned out I did not go to Vietnam ; after boot camp and photography school, I spent two years in Meridian , Mississippi , and nineteen months aboard a ship in the northern Atlantic Ocean .
Not Much to Show for the Effort
When I was discharged from the Navy in December of 1972, I had managed to save enough for a new car. That was it. And after I purchased my dream car, a 1972 Plymouth Barracuda, I had nothing left. I moved to Cincinnati, to an apartment on the second floor of my uncle’s house, and began to look for work. It was 1973 and the oil crisis was beginning to change how we spent our money. Gas was expensive and hard to find. So were jobs.
Even though veterans were at the top of the list in the employment agencies, I went weeks without work. My Uncle Bud was as understanding as he could be, but I was getting further and further behind in my rent. I finally found a job as a glass-blower in a thermometer factory (that sounds like a joke, I know, but it really was my job title). That job lasted less than a month (my only time ever working in a factory); then I worked as a shoe salesman (and got to meet Pete Rose). Later I found work as a traveling photographer, going to beauty salons and photographing the customers after their hair was done. That job evaporated due to the rising cost of fuel. By then Uncle Bud had asked me to “relocate,” so soon I was living in an efficiency apartment in a boarding house for $10.00 a week. It wasn’t long before I was unable to pay that rent or even eat healthy meals.
It Had Never Occurred to Me to Ask God for Help
Though I was raised in the church, it was no longer a part of my life. I sometimes thought of my self as an atheist, or at least as an agnostic. I felt ashamed for having gotten myself into such a state of poverty and distress, and I refused to ask my parents for help, or even let them know how bad off I was. The fact is, I had been a self-serving person for years. I didn’t care what God wanted for me, and I was not going to allow God to influence how I lived.
I will tell you in another post of how God rescued me from that situation. But suffice it to say for now that I finally reached the point of such desperation that I cried out to God, and God heard me and brought me out of fear, poverty and distress.
The Widow Has Her Priorities Right
In this blog post I want us to consider the account of Jesus and his followers observing a poor widow in the temple who gave all she had to God. Jesus says it was “all she had to live on.” Probably money managers of today would call her foolish; but Jesus considered her to be blessed.
Your church – wherever you attend - does not want all that you have to live on, but each of us who is a part of a church family should contribute their fair share. It isn’t about how much one gives (the widow gave only two small coins), but rather it is about giving as much as one should. So what is one’s “fair share”? The simplest answer would be to say 10%. Indeed if everyone gave 10% of their income, the church would collect funds far in excess of our budget! And it would be fair to all, since all would give equally of their income. But, I know that if you have never been a tither before then the thought of giving ten percent seems incredible.
The more realistic proposal for how to give your “fair share” is to suggest that we each give a percentage portion of your income; if not 10%, then perhaps 7% or 5% or even 4%. God will bless any committed effort to consistently give to God’s work. I would also encourage any of us who are giving according to a plan to give a bit more than you think you can afford. I truly believe that anyone who does will be amazed at how God will bless their sincere effort to give their fair share.
After God rescued me from the brink of disaster in Cincinnati
Dear Lord, you gave your all for us. You did not hold back in any way. We are grateful for your sacrificial love and grace. We pray that you will meet the needs of our churches and members in the coming year, and that we will be enabled to step out in faith and trust you as we give and live in 2011. Please guide us by your Holy Spirit to give to others who are in need as well. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
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