The Last Financial Crisis

Before tackling the current financial crisis let’s look at the one that just happened seven short years ago. Back in 2001 it was the golden age of the internet. Billion dollar valuations of companies grew on trees and we were all going to be millionaires by 25 and retire billionaires by 30. It was a time of extravagance and money flowed freely.

During this time I was a couple of year into my Christianity and was newly married. I had gotten it into my head that God wanted to bless me and thought that these blessing were flowing through credit. I had gone wild and bought anything and everything that they would let me buy on credit including a house. Three weeks after buying the house I was laid off from my job due to the economy. I hadn’t even made the first payment on the house.

For the next 2 years my wife and I struggled along as she worked full time and I tried to start/run a business in the technology field. After 2 years we were stripped of just about everything (including the house) and found ourselves renting from her dad once again. I struggled another couple of years with the business until we started having kids. A couple of events happened and I found myself hitting rock bottom.

The Turning Point

The turning point for me was when I got into a business financial dispute with a really good friend that cost me our friendship. I remember sitting in my car with my wife looking at her knowing that if I didn’t change things that I could very well lose her next. It was at that point that I decided to quit the business and go get a job and try to take care of my family the way that a real man of God should.

Since that time my wife and I have been extremely blessed. I believe that choosing to make my family’s needs a priority as opposed to mine allowed God to come into our situation and allowed His blessing and provision to flow. We are more blessed today then we every have been in order lives.

(You can read my perspective on Christian priorities in my post – Priorities as a Christian)

The 2008 and Beyond Financial Crisis

Today’s financial crisis isn’t much different then the one that happened seven years ago. There was money flowing and people were looking to get rich quick and retire young. This time around though it was real estate that was the catalyst for what we are facing. The only difference this time around is that the housing sector is far larger then the technology sector and therefore is and will impact far more people. I do not remember any government bailouts for technology companies seven years ago but we have already had one for the Financial sector and now the auto industry is asking for one as well.

Last time there were several factors that I personally contributed to that allowed the financial downturn to affect me. I had far more debt then I should of. I also had switched jobs not long before getting laid off to a newly created position that was easily expendable (so I found out later). The position I transferred from was one of the few positions that actually remained when all was said and done and hindsight shows me that God was trying to protect me from what was coming. In the last financial crisis I contributed a lot to my anguish and I know and understand that now.

This time around I feel that I am in the right place with God and in the job that He wants me to be in. We have a little debt (still more then I would want) that is easily manageable. I have been tempted at times to fly the coop at my job but have stuck it out and am glad that I did. This time around I should be in a much better place to ride this storm out.

So why do I still get scared as if I am going to lose it all?

Who’s in Control?

I get scared at times because I listen to the news a little too much. I hear the unemployment reports and hear of people getting laid off. At first I was really into the watching and reading the news as it was happening and was finding myself getting more and more depressed. I was easily losing my temper around my wife and kids and had little motivation to do anything. I was down trodden because I felt like I was not in control and my destiny was uncertain. I felt like at any moment I could get that call into my boss’s office to be told that today would be my last day. It was terrible.

Things got to the point that my wife noticed and we started talking about it. She looked at me in unbelief as I quoted her statistics of layoffs and other end of the world jargon that the news channels and internet had been spewing for weeks. Her look of unbelief was not at the actual information that I was saying but at the fact that it was coming out of me. She was pretty quick to remind me that whatever you feed grows and whatever you starve dies. She told me that it was pretty evident that I had been listen to the news more then God.

Her wake up call was the equivalent of getting a smack on the face.

For the previous weeks we had not been to church hardly at all and I had been consumed with all of the bad news floating around. The next day I downloaded several podcasts from various ministers that I know have good Word. I spent the next week listening to them during the day at work and by the end of the week things were looking much better from my perspective.

See, the world is going to tell you that this thing is going to hit you and take you down with it. If you listen to it you are giving the world control of your life and there is a very good possibility that it will do exactly that. But if you stop listening to what the world has to say and listen to God, you will find out that He has a plan ready and waiting for you and is eager to share it with you. His plan is that this financial crisis will have a minimum impact on you. In fact it is His will for you to prosper during this time so you can help other through it. What we have to do though is to make a conscious decision of who we are going to listen to – the world or God.

Fighting the Good Fight

After having the conversation with my wife I made the decision to make God’s Word the authority in my life. At first I was consumed with the Word and I was taken out of depression and was actually a pretty happy camper. Bad news would come but would go as quickly as it came. In my mind even if I got called into the office to be laid off I knew that it would be apart of God’s plan and therefore had nothing to fear. Things were going great.

After that first week I tapered off in listening without realizing it. By the end of the second week I was starting to slip back into listening to the news and into being depressed. Over the weekend I realized what was happening and hit the Word again that following Monday. Since then I have been pretty consistent with listening to the Word and have been doing pretty good.

Another thing that I noticed is that even when I am in the Word if I get really tired then I become more vulnerable. When overly tired I struggle a little more in fighting back the news of world. I now realize that as I continue to take in the Word that I need to make a conscious effort to catch up on my rest as well. The devil always looks for the weak or tired to go after so we need to makes sure we stay up on both.

Conclusion

Bad things are going to come an go. The Bible says that it rains on the just and the unjust (Matt 5:45). I believe that God always has a plan to cushion the blow though. You may have been living it up and now this financial crisis has or is about to catch up with you. You may have done everything right and did not get caught up in what was happening but still are now effected. Either way God has a plan to bring you out. Sometimes it is hard to understand or except that but He is our father, our dad.

Jeremiah 29:11 says:

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

The thing that always helps me in situations like this is to think of how I would be if my son was in the same situation.

If my son came to me and said “Dad, I played the real estate game and messed up, can you help me and my family out?” how would I react? Would I say “Well, that’s too bad, I hope you figure something out.”. No, I would help him. He might get a lecture from me but I am not going to leave my son and his family out in the cold because he made a mistake. I would do everything in my power to take care of him and help him get on his feet.

There is nothing that I would not do for my son.

I believe that God is the same way. There is nothing that He would not do for us. We just need to come to him. When we come to Him He will reassures us that He is in control and that he is going to take care of us (Deu 31:6). Anytime I get scared or concerned about something that has come my way there He is to let me us that everything it going to be alright. He is such a good dad.

Jobs come and go, houses, cars, etc the same. But God is always there, constant, never changing. He loves us and is more then willing to take us in and take care of us and our families. We just need to give Him the chance.

Well here is a nice list of updates of what I have been doing the last 7 months:

1. I quit the Media Ministry. I went to one training session and knew it was not time to get involved.
2. I quit school. Was not the time either. I was not spending as much time with my family as I wanted. Also it was very expensive verses the return. 
3. Started making some good, steady, money from blogging which helped our cash flow.
4. In addition to the blogging I got a steady side part-time job doing web design.
5. In addition to that I have had more side web design projects then I have wanted (OK, I wanted them).
6. Prayed for the last 5 months about buying a bigger house and finally put the deposit down this past weekend on it.
7. Have been pretty steady in going to church during that time.
8. Had a “Connection” with my pastor. No, I have not met him but he said a couple of things in a service that I felt spiritually connected me to him/the church.
9. Joined a “Connection Group” from the church. Went to the first and only meeting so far. It was cool. Really nice people.
10. Feel like I am closer to God then ever. I am led more by His peace then ever before in my life. I am comfortable with not moving (if at all) until He tells me it is time to move.

That’s it. 7 months wrapped up in a 10 point list.

The last 7 months have been good and I really feel that God has been working on my character during that time. The biggest area that He has been working on me has been managing my time between being a good Christian/husband/father/son/employee/business owner. It can be challenging, some days are better then others, but I am here and still kicking.

I am not making any promises on when the next post will be or frequency of posts. I am still alive though and throw something up here when the spirit moves me.

Until then…

Basically what he does is takes things that where said in the Bible and applies the probability theory to them. For instance, what is the probability that someone would guess that the light from the moon is the reflection of the sun. What are the possibilities? It could make it’s own light, or reflect the light of the sun, or reflect the light of some other star. This would give a person a 1 in 3 change to get this correct.

Basically he takes several examples and puts them together for a 0% chance that someone could guess all the things that where said thousands of years ago that science has proven to be correct today.

It is a pretty good argument that I would not mind getting an atheist’s view on.

Technorati Tags: God, Atheist, Science, Torah, Old Testament, Bible

My wife received her response first and was set to attend a orientation meeting to get acquainted with how they do things. I got a call a couple of days later and was encouraged to come to the next Praise and Worship practice to meet the team.

My wife and I did not make it to either meeting.

The reason for this is that after we had talked with each person something just was not sitting right with either of us. The only way that I can explain the way that I felt was that I felt “wrong”. It was a weird feeling so I spent some time praying and talking to God on the way to work one morning about it. I really felt from Him that this was not the right time to get involved. As weird as that seems there was a reason for it.

In my previous post – God’s Blessings can be Humbling – I explained how God had given me a job that I did not qualify for because it required a degree. While I am most thankful for the job and know for a fact that God gave it to me I know that God wants to do more. I know this because I am His son and He has told me (that is another post). Anyway, my wife and I had been talking about money and what the future was going to hold for us and it was not looking too good.

See God has been trying to get me to go to regular school (I went to and graduated from Bible school) to get my Bachelors Degree for the last 10 years and for one reason or another I have not done it. I have a list of excuses a mile long which include, no time, no money, “I don’t need a degree – I got God”, and several other things which are not reasons but excuses.

To sum everything up, the reason that God said that it was not time to get involved in the ministry was because it was time for me to go back to school. With this word from God I started doing research into different colleges and Universities and felt lead to enroll at Devry University. In one week I went from an initial consultation to sitting in my first class. God moved quickly and and swiftly on my behalf to get me back into school. He moved from the administration to get me enrolled to complete financial aid and grants so that I do not have any out of pocket expenses while I am in school. This is all to His glory.

See this is what happens in our lives a lot of times, we are struggling along in one area of our lives not aware that God has completely mapped out to take care of that issue. Then all of a sudden all the beckoning and calling from God gets us turned in the right direction and all of a sudden the answer to our prayer is showered from heaven.

This is what has been happening to me for the last year and half. It all started when I quit my business and got a job. I have been on a blessing roller coaster ever since. I have begun to learn that when things are not flowing that I need to take a step back and understand why. 9 times out of 10 the reason that they are not flowing is because I am not going the right direction. Then once I make the proper adjustment all of a sudden the peace returns and things begin to flow again.

I encourage you that if you have an area in your life that is not flowing to ask God the reason why it is not. Then, once you have heard from him make the adjustment and receive the blessing.

God Bless.

Technorati: Christian Living, Christian, School, College, DeVry, God, Finances

This all came to a head a couple of weeks back when my boss and I got blamed for them not being able to do their job properly. My boss got pulled into a meeting with the CEO and a couple of VP’s to find out why we (I) was lagging (at least in their opinion).

Leading up to this meeting I was actually cornered (on the phone) by one of these individuals and chewed out for over a half hour on everything from ‘I have no idea what I am doing’ to ‘I have no idea what they are doing’. Needless to say I was pretty shook up. I am glad that I had people in my group that overheard and were supportive. I have to say that I was surprised at my reaction to this individual – or lack of it. Usually I would fight back but I patiently listened to the individual and and tried to worked with them. god was at work.

That wasn’t the only thing that God was at work in.

To sum it up the big meeting happened and it actually backfired on the individuals who escalated it to the CEO. They ended up getting chewed out for not doing their job and for relying too much on me when they had other tools that they were supposed to use. Before the meeting I just put it in God’s hands and He allowed me to come out on top. I did have a couple things that were actionables from the meeting but nothing major.

This reminds me of the story of when moses had just led the children of Israel out of Egypt and they were being chased by the Egyptians. They made it to the Red Sea but were trapped. In Exodus 14:13 it reads:

And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.

Sometimes in life you have done everything that you can do in a situation and the only thing that you can do is put it in God’s hands.

This happened in another situation recently when my 1 year old daughter needed to have a minor surgery to remove a small cyst from here sternum area. Our concern was that she cries when strangers get too close to her and who is more strange then some person dressed in scrubs that is taking her away from here mom and dad. The other issue was that she was my daughter, and I love her, and did not like the thought of her having to have surgery.

This was really hard for both my wife and I leading up to the day of the surgery. My wife finally broke down and started taking about it. Through our talk we came to the conclusion that there was nothing that we could except put the situation into God’s hands. My wife and I are not going to be there with our kids every waking moment but God can. Who better to watch over our kids them him?

Anyway, the day and of the surgery came and not a tear was shed when the nurse took her. She cried a little when she woke up but as soon as my wife picked her up she stopped. The only way that it could have been any better would have been if she didn’t have to have the procedure in the first place.

Paul understood that he was limited at times and said in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 -

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Sometimes in life there are situations that the only thing you can do is go through them – you cannot go around them or avoid them. That was the situation with our daughter. As much as I did not want here to have the surgery it was something that she needed and was going to make her better. It would have been selfish of my to make her suffer because I did not want to deal with the situation (that is another subject ).

As much power as God has given us there are somethings that we need to rely on Him for. We need to know this and except it and let Him demonstrate His power. The best part of this is that when you give the situation to Him he gives you peace in return:

Philippians 4:6-7: Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Be blessed and learn to give th situation to God. He is a gentleman and will not take it from you, you have to give it.

Technorati: Christianity, Hardship, Peace, God, Salvation, Hard Times, Opposition

I got a email from a job site that I used while looking for the job that I presently have. Their announcement was that they had just added a salary search function to their site that gives you the average salary for a position in any geographic area that you choose. I was interested to see how I stacked up in the position that I was in.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was in the lower spectrum for what my postion pays. That means that my company or another would have no problem paying me more in the future for what I do. I then looked up the types of positions that I was trying to get when this position came along (I was not looking for this type of position at the time).

I was very surprised to find that those other positions paid a considerable amount lower then what I was being paid right now. This was a shock. In California the pay rate was higher for those positions but there is a big difference here in Texas.

I then started to think about how this position came along and where it has the potential to take me. I was humbled dramatically.

See sometimes we think we know what we want or what is best for us. God in His infinite wisdom just looks down on us with love and says – “why don’t you try this instead”. This is why it is important to try and be plugged into God and do what He wants as opposed to just thinking about the moment and what we want.

See when things would get tough in this position I would then start to look at other positions thinking that they would be better for me. But now I have a better understanding of why I am here and know that God gave this position to me as a blessing. That is valuable to me because I know that as long as I am were God wants me to be, doing what He wants me to do, that I am going to be taken care of by Him.

I know have a totally different outlook on this position and on God – He rocks!

Technorati: Christian Living, Work, God, Jesus

In last week’s service they announced the first of a few classes to become members of the church and eventually serve in a ministry within the church. Feeling good we signed up for class that was supposed to be this past Sunday.

During the week I picked up a little side job to bring in some extra cash since the wife is staying home now. I was gearing up to take on more projects on the side also. On Friday I got an e-mail from a company that wanted so refreshing of their web site and a little marketing direction.

After a 1 hour + “free” consultation on that Saturday and 4 e-mails from the company on Sunday (I did not respond to them) I was feeling pretty worn out.

We could use the extra cash coming in to make things a little more comfortable financially and that job would have been a nice chunk of change. The thing of it was that the little bit I was taking on was wearing me out to the point that I did not want to got to the first class that we had signed up for at Church.

In talking with the wife we narrowed it down to the fact that we are really used to biting off more then we can chew and then rushing around. This is really not what God wants.

We decided that we are going to give it another couple of months before we consider the whole membership/ministry track at church. Also, I am not going to pick up extra projects on the side, not right now, maybe somewhere down the road.

The thing is that we have small children that need us to be around. If we spend the time now to be there and nurture them then we and then are not going to face as many issues when they are older. We chalked this whole thing up to a “growing up” lesson.

Technorati : Christianity, Church, Family, God, Jesus, Ministry

We decided to get some drive through and eat in the car so he could get his rest. After about 45 minutes my wife dropped me off and he was still asleep.

As I was walking back to my office I thought how that is the way that we are with God sometimes. I mean there I was sitting right next to my son for about an hour and he never even knew I was there. How many time are we unaware of God sitting right next us because we are spiritually asleep.

Just food for thought.

Technorati : Christian, Christianity, God, God’s Presence, Walking with God