Lessons from the Master Teacher

Today I read an interesting story found in the Bible in the book of John the 7th chapter.  Jesus is walking along with His brothers when a rather curious conversation breaks out.  His brothers extend the invitation to Jesus "Hey lets go up to Judea for the Feast of Tabernacles" as if they have had some kind of epiphany.   Because of threats on His life, Jesus respectfully declines the invite.  But then, what ensues is a bit curious.  Jesus sends His brothers on to Judea and then...He promptly goes, perhaps incognito.  

But why?

Obviously Jesus knew that He would go, so why did He tell His brothers to go on and observe the Feast of Tabernacles without Him.  I think there are 2 possible answers:  first, His brothers had not fully bought in.  Verse 5 says that “even His brothers did not believe”.  Perhaps their disbelief in some way would hamper Jesus' mission. 
The second possible explanation has to do with timing: Jesus' time had not yet come.  Twice in Chapter 7 He says "My time is not fully come".  Perhaps Jesus didn't want to show up to the Jewish Feast, which incidentally it seems that He was pretty determined to fulfill, with a band of brothers.  Doing so might draw attention to Himself.  And why would that have been such a bad thing?  What if in doing so He was killed in the mob, thus failing to fulfill His mission and purpose on earth?  The entire plan of God's restoration and salvation for man hung in the balance and would be thwarted.

But what does this have to do with finances you might ask?  The answer lies in the "timing" message.  If you have read my book 12 Pillars & a Prayer you might remember that God's plan and purpose is to make stewards out of each of us.  That means that prosperity and wealth and money are found within the context of being a steward, i.e., a conservator of God's provisions.  Such conservatorship is rarely bestowed upon the novice and when it is that novice is even more rarely up to the challenge.  No, stewardship carries with it the conation of a battle tested warrior who has learned the tactics of conquering an enemy.  In the case of finances, that enemy is usually from within.  I think that the hardest thing to tame in life is your spirit when you know that God has something for you, you see the need, but your time is not yet come.  Your job is to lay low and let time have its perfect appearance.

As business owners, entreprenuers and those who simply desire to be financially sound and prosperous, we often want it now.  We want the booming business, lots of cash flow and balanced bank statements...now!  And when we don't get it now the tendency is become discouraged and retreat into old habits.  Things like not making the extra call, bouncing a check, not writing on your book today and even worse, starting to doubt that God really desires to see His people do well in this world.
You see the real message of this story is this:  calling and purpose are great and necessary for us to succeed in this world, but they are not enough.  Timing is everything!  You may be on a real mission to build your business, but if you're out of time, I promise you, your desired results will be for another day.  

• Rush out there to open your restaurant without training your servers and chances are you'll be out of business real soon.  
• Talk to someone about purchasing your product and they just lost their job and your chances of closing the deal diminish greatly.  
• Tell somebody about this dynamite business opportunity and they just got burnt in their last one and chances are you're going home empty.
• 4,000 books were just released on How to grow your garden and you might rethink if this is the right time to hit the market with another one.

You get the point?  .  Just as the Master Teacher was not sucked into the moment you might need to go to the feast incognito for the time being.  His time had not yet come, He knew it and He was willing to pass on the moment in order to get to the maximum payoff.  Had Jesus acted solely on His calling it would have cost Him his life prematurely and the entire plan of salvation would have been derailed.  The lesson here is that calling is not enough.  You must also discern the time.

The point of the story can be expressed in a mathematical equation: 

Calling + timing = Tremendous payoff and harvest.

Our job is to know both our calling and the times.  In such is great prosperity of body, soul and spirit!  Until we talk again, may you prosper and be in good health! 

Crisis of Faith!

"I wrote the book for crying out loud!"  "I've been quoting and living by this stuff for 7 years now!"  I found myself drowning in a flood of emotion and my mind was running wild.  I had just reviewed the fee schedules posted on Medicaid and Medicare's websites and realized that there was a 30% pay cut for all of us healthcare providers.  This was right after one of my daughters told me that almost 100% of her promotion was negated by a tax increase.  And if that wasn't enough the AOL welcome screen's leading story was that Congress received a pay increase! 

Needless to say, I was not a happy camper!  I had good reason to be angry and so does the rest of America.  The prior week I had listened to all the political hullabaloo about how we were going to strengthen our healthcare, how tax increases would only effect those making $250,000 a year or more, and then find out that in spite of the so-called avoidance of the fiscal cliff on December 31st, none of it seemed to be true.

For the better part of a week my mind and emotions got the best of me.  But what could I do?  This was completely out of my control.  Over 95% of my psychology practice is Medicaid/Medicare and now it was evaporating faster than I could say "the mortgage is due".  I found myself agitated, depressed, and most of all, fearful.  Fear is not an emotion I tolerate well and often forces me into quick, impulsive and sometimes, irrational decisions.  I don't think that I am alone in my reaction to fear.  I've seen people do some pretty ill-advised things in an effort to bring their fear and anxiety under control.

After several days the fear and anxiety began to take its toll on me.  I could feel it in every part of my body and I wasn't sleeping well.  The question of the day in my house was "Dad, are you stressed?"  Obviously my attempts to conceal my concerns were failing and the question alone brought out my inner agitation and irritability with life.

Then one day this week I'm driving to work, feeling all the weight of the situation, and trying to have some semblance of a prayer.  Thoughts raced through my mind like a runaway freight train.  Conversations with colleagues only served to elevate my anxiety and frustration further.  Think about it.  Loosing almost a third of your income overnight and at the same time having a tax increase.  Shouldn't one's fear be aroused?

In the natural, the answer is yes.  But then, I wrote the book about this stuff.  I said we live in different economy.  And all of sudden I'm not fighting the system any longer, I'm having a full blown crisis.  It was a Crisis of Faith!  Do I believe in Washington's ability to fix things thereby making me feel better or do I believe in a benevolent God who will take care of me and my family regardless of circumstances thereby having a peace that transcends all understanding?
In that moment I asked myself a simple question:  why do I want to let Washington politics, Medicaid/Medicare or any other earthly agent determine what kind of day I will have?  I mean, why would I want to sell my mood to a system that is about as stable as running water?  I was reminded of Pillar 1 and that it is “God who gives me the ability to generate wealth”.  I remembered that the chapter title alone"Our Source”, challenges us to look beyond governmental provision and towards a loving God who has a better idea.  I had to make a choice: who is my source?  My crisis of faith had to be resolved.  I found myself apologizing to God for stability in unstable things and reaffirming my faith in His goodness and care for me.  Before too much longer a peace flooded my soul and fear was now replaced with confidence.  It was the first time in weeks that I had been able to relax and laugh.

When people ask me what 12 Pillars and a Prayer is about, I usually give a short answer that its about money.  But that's the short answer.  The longer answer is that it is a book about thinking about money.  It is a set of principles that form a foundation to living above all the madness that the current economic climate imposes on us.  Pillar 1 reminds us that there is another economic system operating.  It is one defined by a higher purpose and principle.  One that begins with a different source and if we'll begin with placing our faith in that source, we'll be ruled by peace and confidence rather than fear and uncertainty.  As a psychologist I can say with complete conviction that its difficult, if not impossible, to make quality decisions out of mental processes ruled by fear and uncertainty.  When God told Joshua that it was time to go into the promised land he had to say 6 times "fear not".  It was His way reminding Joshua of his source.  He is still reminding us today, the question is, will we believe?  Until we talk again...walk in freedom!