For those of you new to Free Money Finance, I post on The Bible and Money every Sunday. Here's why.
The following is an excerpt from Building Your Financial Fortress in 52 Days: The Lessons of Nehemiah. This post is from Day 36.
Forty shekels add up to about a pound of silver. In today’s monetary value, silver is around fifteen dollars an ounce and there are sixteen ounces in a pound, so that comes to $240 per person. That would pay for a great deal of the city’s services. Nehemiah could have said, “People have no idea how much it takes to run a city government. I am not putting this money in my pocket; I am investing it in them.”
That would certainly be a reasonable statement. But Nehemiah said neither. He decided to fund the part of the project that was unwritten by King Artaxerxes. This was much more than I am sure he expected. But he remembered the money- hungry men who preceded him and he would not even breathe like them. Their god was their stomach, but Nehemiah’s God was the greatest of all treasures, and his citizenship was in Heaven.
The city was tax-free. If the people didn’t pay for the public services, then who would? Nehemiah was willing to trust God to stretch his nest egg and foot the bill for this gigantic family. What he did not have, God would provide. He would not have been a good politician today. He certainly wouldn’t make it on a corporate board; the stockholders would reject such a “Boy Scout.” He would have made it on only a few church boards with his radical financial beliefs. Certainly the learned board members would attempt to groom him to become a bigger and better disciple through borrowing and bonds. But Nehemiah had a new focus, a new hunger for true riches, and a new desire for his eternal home. He was focused on life change; he was addicted to a God who satisfies.
Fifty-two days of this tax-free stuff is plausible, even commendable. It may have gotten him re-elected. But Nehemiah did this for twelve years. Nehemiah’s faith was stretched daily. His dependence on himself was non-existent. His God was big.
What if our God gets this big? Could we trust Him as much as we trust ourselves? More?
We were remodeling the kitchen at the office. The handyman brought us a slightly used almond-colored dishwasher to use and we accepted the gift, but decided to use the one that was still operating. We had the almond-colored dishwasher in the hallway for weeks until we decided to set it outside for drive- by scavengers to pick up some evening. They did, and we were happy to unload it. After all, it was almond colored.
Every Thursday, we would close the tax and accounting practice and wear a different hat—the financial counselor hat.
Renee came in for an appointment one day. She was a single mom who I had not seen for a few months. She sheepishly revealed a new credit card bill, a Sears account with a balance of $555, at 18 percent interest and subject to higher APR. I asked what the story was. She said her dishwasher went out, and she really wanted a particular color and could not imagine such a foolish prayer to God. A request for a dishwasher, sure, but a particular color? No! Now that takes the cake.
Can you imagine every man, woman, and child in the world bothering God for the exact color of what they are asking for? What is He? The Sears Catalog? QVC? The Internet? No way, God ain’t no vending machine. As C.S. Lewis said, “He is good, but He is not tame.” But does that mean you don’t ask for a color and settle for whatever He wants to give you and you will like it or else? No, that is not what C.S. Lewis was saying.
Such a good God, coupled with the closeness of a best friend, results in a satisfying trust—a trust that knows whatever He provides is the best because He promises “... no good thing will I withhold from those whose walk is blameless.”
So whatever happened to Renee? When she mentioned she bought a dishwasher and had to charge it because she had no money and she wanted a certain color and God couldn’t fill her order, I had to sheepishly ask the question, “You didn’t happen to need an almond-colored dishwasher, did you?”
She said, “Yes, that is exactly the color I wanted!”
I told her how I was given a dishwasher that I didn’t need and so I put it outside after some calls to folks that might have needed it. She said, “I thought about calling you, but I was embarrassed to ask for a certain color.” I told her that dishwasher should have gone to her. She left knowing a bigger, more-loving God than she came in with. So can you.
We are seldom given to know what would have happened had we trusted God, rather than relying on our own strength and resources, but it sounds as if, in this case, Renee got that chance.
Posted by: Jon | March 11, 2012 at 10:46 AM
Ha! Great story. Einstein (I believe this was a confirmed quote) said that God shows Himself through remarkable coincidences.
This lets the nay-sayers shrug it off, but the believers have no doubt. I believe.
Posted by: JoeTaxpayer | March 11, 2012 at 10:52 AM