77.9 < Infinity

WHAT IS OUR PATH SUPPOSED TO BE?

It’s easy to miss the simple, yet profound wisdom kids have to offer. A good friend of mine, who is a youth pastor in Beaumont, Texas, recently told me an amazing comparison a 7-year-old girl told her one day during their youth activities. The little girl said, “We, as children of God, are like a paint-by-number coloring book. If we listen to God, and paint the right colors in the lines, then we can create a more beautiful picture than we ever could have imagined. If we don't listen to God, we just mess up the picture. The cool thing is God has the power to fix the picture through Christ. So no matter what has gone on in our past, our present picture can be beautiful through the grace and mercy God gave us through Jesus.”

How easily do we mess up the picture of our lives sometimes? Even worse, how easily do we forget who the Painter/Artist is? Luckily, God gives us a blueprint to know where to paint the right color. He also has given us the Holy Spirit to help direct us. Finally, he gave us Jesus, and his life, to show us an example of how to color in the lines. There is only one Person that didn’t make any mistakes on the painting—Jesus. No matter how hard we try, we can never paint a perfect masterpiece.

It doesn’t matter what happened in your past, what matters is the decisions made now and in the future. Even after accepting Christ into your life, it is easy to make mistakes because our sinful nature likes to wreak havoc. Accepting Christ into your life is not like asking the Genie to make you a Prince and then live happily ever after. Most times, it opens the doors for the demons to attack. You are now a huge threat! Not only are you no longer on their side, you are now a victorious son or daughter of the King who causes them to shudder. Therefore, we are able to resist these battles when we put our faith and trust in God.

God also gave us free will, which allows us to mess up. We are all plagued with sin, and even the “best of the best” Christians are going to sin. Even Peter, “the Rock”, denied knowing Jesus after spending practically three years with Him! I can’t stress enough that no one is perfect. Society loves to tell us that doing all the right things will make you grow closer to becoming perfect or “having life figured out”. But those are all lies Satan loves to deceive us with.

Image from "The Adjustment Bureau"

The average American lives 77.9 years. Now, when someone accepts Jesus into their heart, their life expectancy grows exponentially into infinity, or rather eternity. Let’s put that into perspective. The Bible started being written around 3500 years go. Our measly 77.9 years is only .02 years of the Bible’s total existence. Scientists say the earth could be as old as 4.1 billion years. Interestingly, 77.9 years is only 10x19^-7. Both of these time frames are pretty minuscule comparatively speaking to a person’s life and the existence of life. The one bad grade you received, the promotion you earned, the solo you didn’t get, the relationship that didn’t work out, the business you built from the ground up, a family member passing away…all become very small events when compared to the timelessness of eternity.

I have several friends who do not believe in God. As I said before, God gives us free will. I worked to be a good example to them, as well as show them love. I had many intellectual conversations with them about theology and their beliefs. It tested and grew my faith. It challenged me to learn more about their questions. Many times we would come to a point where we would choose to respectfully agree to disagree. One time, a friend told me there was really no reason to seek out if there was a God or not. They were content with their life they didn’t feel the need for support or someone to depend on. Regardless of how we think or feel though, this human and world-based life isn’t the important one. It is a grain of sand on the shore compared to eternity.

You may think you have this side of life figured out, but do you have the big picture figured out? Is your picture going to be painted the way it was intended, or will it be left unfinished? If I, as a Christian, am wrong, then I guess my body will just rot when I die and my life too was meaningless. If someone else is wrong, then what happens after those 77.9 years?

What I pray for you, is that more than anything, you seriously put the events in your life into perspective. Put your trust in God in all that you do. Find peaceful assurance that you are not the painter, but the painting. He has your best interest in mind—even if you think you know better. I pray that you realize you are standing on ground level, seeing only the immediate. Whereas God is sitting in the cockpit flying over your life’s path, seeing the entire future he has planned for you. I pray when you have a success, joy or growth, that you not only praise God for that blessing, but then consult God for the next task he has entrusted you with. I pray when you have failure, heartache, or relapse, that you fall to your knees. Ask what wisdom God is trying to give you, and then move valiantly forward with the armor of God!

This has been on my heart for a while. I pray it speaks to at least one person, and gives them strength to persevere or get over whatever has been weighing them down. If you have comments or thoughts to add please feel to do so! This is all for God’s glory and not my own.

“God can take your: misery and turn it into a ministry, your tests into a testimony, your messes into a message. He uses you for his glory!” – Don Piper

            “We’re going to do everything short of sin to reach people for Christ.” - Craig Groeschel

            “Take it to God, and then get back to work!” – Craig Groeschel

“30 Light in a messenger's eyes brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones. 31 Whoever heeds life-giving correction will be at home among the wise. 32 Those who disregard discipline despise themselves, but the one who heeds correction gains understanding.”

                                                - Proverbs 15

“We are spiritual contributors, not spiritual consumers. The church does not exist for us. We are the church and we exist for the world.” – Lifechurch.tv Core Values #9

With Passion, Love, and Respect,

Matthew R. Schultz

It Really Is The Little Things

A Great Financial Lessen Learned

When I was in third grade my mother and father took me to the bank to open up a checking account. Many kids my age had an allowance at that time. Many other kids were just given most every thing they asked for. My parents set up a plan with me. I would get paid $100 a month if I worked 10 hours at our sporting goods store, on our farm with Grandpa, or doing chores at home. That is a lot of money for a 3^rd grader, so I was excited.

Then I learned that there was a catch. From the $100 I was first responsible to tithe 10%, leaving me with $90. After that I was responsible for my clothes, special school supplies, cost of hanging with friends, and anything else my heart desired. My parents would still provide the essentials of food, shelter, and transportation. I learned quickly that the $90 didn’t go very far when it came to buying clothes, a Sony Play Station, or the super cool Doctor Grip Pencils that were $7 a piece but made all the other kids jealous of what you wrote with (and gave you an A+ on every assignment lol). Needless to say, I had to learn how to budget my money at an early age to make it last. There are no credit cards for 3rd Graders. 

I learned that the small things can add up quickly. If I bought a pop (coke if you are from Texas), at that time that was usually $1. If I bought one every day, that was $365 in a year, enough to buy a Super Nintendo and some really cool games. At that time my foster brother was also saving up for a car, but couldn’t afford one and had to drive our beat up Yellow Boat of a Mercury Marquee. I wanted a “cool” car when I turned 16 so I asked my dad how I could make more money faster.

He told me that I could work more hours, or do extra every month. He also said that I could invest it. We talked about some ideas of what a 4^th grader could invest in. I bought some drawing supplies and tried to sell pictures I drew at the store. Turns out I wasn’t a very good artist and I sold 2 pictures for .25 cents a piece. Soon after that my Grandpa said that he would invest in a cow with me. I ended up spending $400 on a cow in March. In September the cow had had a calf that was ready to go to sale and we sold that first calf for $425 and I got to keep the cow. Well this was a nifty concept. I got my money back and I still owned something that was worth something. Over the years I ended up owning 5 cows that had several calves. Not to mention that because it was Grandpa’s farm my cows could “never” die (think about that for a little bit).

With the help of certain investments and my parents, I was able to purchase my first car a 1996 Chevy Blazer with sweet rims, a cattle guard, and some cool fog lights. Though the investments helped out a lot, I don’t think that is where the majority of the money came from.

I feel the most important thing I had learned from 3^rd grade on was to monitor what was being spent. It is so easy to say that $1 isn’t that much when buying that pop. Or that $5 for that cheap Walmart DVD isn’t that much. But $1000 dollars is only 1,000 pops, and I’ll bet many people drink many that in a year. The lesson I learned was to be frugal.

Frugality is not about being cheap. There is an importance to buying nice things that work and will work for a long time. However, are you paying as much attention to the small things that you are buying, as you would for the large things. For example, say you’re a smoker, 1) smoking isn’t good for you and could cost you lots in health care, but 2) it costs to do. One pack of cigarettes a day is on average $5, which in a year is around $1825. Is there something that you would/could do with that money that would be more productive or beneficial to: you, your family, or God?  It all adds up. What are the little things your’re purchasing? Pop? Alcohol? Clothes - Just because it is “on sale” doesn’t mean you “have to have it”!

That is just one example. Many times taking a look at what you are already spending money on and editing that could find you lots of extra dollars to pay off debt, or help you to save for something special. That mindset helped me to get through college with minimal debt. It has helped me to save money on cars by paying cash. Most of all it has allowed me to help others when they need it! After all, the sooner you learn that everything you have is God’s anyway, the sooner you’ll realize none of these worldly things go with you when you turn to dust.

I don’t want money to become your idol by this reflection, and for you to think and stress about it all the time. However, I do want you to realize that God blesses us with what he gives us. #1 give him back your best through tithing if you are a Christian. But #2, make sure that you are being a good steward of the blessings that he has given you. Don’t worry about trying to live to today’s social standards (spending $3 for every $1 earned). If you do the math, today’s standards don’t give you a very good test grade when it comes to simple subtraction.

Ultimately, I pray that this helps at least one person to wake up and realize what they are spending money and time on. Wake up enough to start to analyze and edit their expenditures to really only spend money and time on what matters. In the words of Craig Groeschel – “Just because you ‘could’ do something doesn’t mean you ‘should’ do it.” Let go of the the things that you invest in that really don't matter.

            “Better is one handful with tranquility than 2 handfuls with toil and chasing

                        after the wind.” – Ecclesiastes 4:6

“Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” – Hebrews 12:1

If you have links, success stories, or little tricks that help you, please comment as such! It has always been on my heart to help others improve their financial outlook. I am a huge supporter of Dave Ramsey and his message of becoming debt free! I also support living on what they call a 10-10-80 plan!

Dave Ramsey - http://www.daveramsey.com/home/ 

10-10-80 Plan - http://changecounts.com/10-10-80-rule-of-investing.html 

With Passion, Love, and Respect,

Matthew R. Schultz