Tuesday, March 8, 2016

what's my price?













The love of money, not just money is the root of all evil.  Read that again, the LOVE of money, not money, is the root of all ego.  Yet we all strive to make more money, so we can live a better live, via better toys, bigger homes, nicer cars, and longer vacations.  Normal, but the attitude we do it with is the most important aspect.  Watching a TV show recently, the 5 minute spot was about a couple who won millions, over $300 of them, and declared on TV, “we’re not quitting our jobs, this won’t change our lives.”  The first lie, because the fact you won, and are on TV have already changed you.  As far as going to work, now you will have the time to live your dreams, or do you enjoy the long hours of low pay?  If the money isn’t going to change you, can you send me some, it will change me?  And suddenly people come out of the woodwork with deals, relatives you hated and avoided for years try to reunite with you, and you have lost your privacy.  The IRS has already taken its share, and will be a constant companion the rest of your life.  And you are keeping your job and it won’t change your life?
I don’t care for the term bucket list, but we all have dreams and desires.  And money not only pays the bills, but is the only thing accepted at my grocery store, cash or debit or credit.  Try trading some live chickens for some fried ones at KFC-or a bag of potatoes for fries at Mickey D’s, I think you get the idea.  It is money that is a universal trading staple, no matter how rich or how poor, winner or not.  Money talks, %^&*& walks. 
Now we all want to get the best deal, so we negotiate when we can.  We brag of when we got a good deal, “look what I bought,” versus when we got a bad deal, “look how they sold me that car.”  Seems it is never our fault, but yet everyone has his price.  When I shop for motorcycle parts, I know the guys at the shops, and ask “what’s my price?”  I like dealer cost, cost plus 10% is still good, but I try to avoid paying retail when I can.  And it always seems there is someone who tells you “I could have gotten it cheaper,” after you make your best deal. Thanks a lot pal, where were you when I called prior to buying?  But we all have a price we pay, and we all have a price that we will sell out for.  You may be being tested, or will be tested, but it will happen.  Mine came a few years ago when working the best paying job I ever had.  I was accused of proseletyzing, which I wasn’t, but my boss told me to leave God at home.  “It only makes sense not to bring god to work,” he told me in a group of managers, the same guy who often had me pray for his family.  And it resulted in my losing my job, I was not going to renounce God for him or anyone.  But the loss of money hurt...so I decided to sue, and had a great case.  They even admitted to breaking the law by telling me that, and we had it from their corporate attorney on paper.  But my heart had been unsettled, the money would have been nice, all 7 figures of it, but the Lord showed me the importance of my witness.  And how suing, and winning would jaundice any words I once said in love.  My last thought was if I ever run into that person,can I tell them about Jesus in love after winning the law suit?  Would they listen?  What was my price for my soul?  Was I in it for the money, or to minister?  And so I did the hard thing, but the right thing, and called off the lawsuit, the day before we were to settle.  I cold face them if I ever saw them, but more importantly I could face God, who I seem to see a lot of.  And I could face myself....what would you have done?
The mercy I had shown my ex-employer, has been shown to me many times over.  The Golden Rule, do unto others as you would have them do to you.  I almost succumbed to another golden rule, he who has the gold rules.  And although winning, it would have cost me dearly.  Victory comes to us in strange ways when we serve the Lord.  It turns out my heart and witness was being tested, I almost threw it away for a million dollars.  And yes, it would have changed my life.  But then I remembered it was Jesus Christ who changed my life, and no amount of money can compare to that.  Or the peace he brings. Given the chance, who do you serve, God or mammon?  Is it all about Jesus, or all about you?
If I was in prison, or dying in a hospital, how would I have spent it?  How could I?  Certain conditions follow winning, and do with Christ.  He is with you in jail, and I know he was with me in the hospital.  No walls except the ones we build around our heart can keep him out.  So let me close with my favorite Mother Teresa quote.  When being interviewed in an Indian hospital, dysentery everywhere, flies, bugs, and high heat.  Lovely.  The interviewer, from the US of A looked at her and said “I wouldn’t do this for a million dollars.”  “I wouldn’t either,” she replied.  You see there are values more valuable than valuables.  Things that cannot be taken from us.  For the things seen are temporal, the things not seen are eternal.  What’s you price?  And how does it compare to the price Jesus paid? What if you won the lottery and lost your soul?  Keep your day job....of being a witness of and for Jesus Christ.  The biggest payoff is yet to come, and you will win.  You just won’t want to come back to tell anyone.  That’s their job.  There are winners, and there are winners, what’s your price?
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com