It never fails. I’ve been sleeping really late as of the past days and weeks, so you can imagine that I was a little more excited than usual to head to bed a whole lot earlier. That’s when Mom hits me with news that she was actually in talks with a cousin of mine to invest, and to restart a business of another relative that couldn’t be as hands-on as needed… and that we needed to be up a whole lot earlier to receive stock and, apparently, to start the takeover.
That was the scene last night. I was pretty irate about this sudden news, and how it was all falling into place for my mom than it was for me. I mean, as far as I was concerned I was just going to be sleeping early to make up for all the lost hours of rest. Apparently I was serving another purpose. And for some reason that pissed me off.
Earlier today, in the earlier hours of the morning, we headed out, and all of a sudden I found myself just as plunged into the business as my Mom apparently was. A little later on the cousin arrived, so it was just good to see that there were more warm bodies to allay the information overload, as her nephew was talking on and on about how the business ran.
Look, I’m not going to share what it is. That’s beyond the point. What I will say, though, is that at the end of the day, when we checked on my cousin, we didn’t do half bad for our first day. I thought to myself, in spite of all my bitching, will you look at that – we’ve been blessed. A good business has been placed on our laps.
All is well, I suppose. Mom will be more active and will get her hands dirty. Of course, I’ll be spending time there as well, versus just slacking over at church, ‘working’ as a pastor. I can’t sit here and say that God didn’t have a part of this. It’s just as I always say when I would testify about God’s grace, during those days that I wasn’t really being as serious in being a minister – that God knows I love surprises, and the great blessings do come when I least expect them. In this case, I may even face it with a lot of resistance, but in the end, well, the Holy Spirit allows me to see it for what it is – God’s grace working from the heavens to my heart, God’s grace working from the infinite to the finite.
Apparently, I still believe in miracles. Let me say that again – I still believe in God’s direct and intentional intervention from the infinite to our finite world… but as usual, I will say that these miracles are a far second to the miracle of miracles, that is, Christ Himself. Christ, and His finished work. Without that miracle, well, none of the other miracles would matter.
Somewhere along the line I believe some pastors’ kids I know forgot all about this. Remember, I mentioned that it’s God that moves, and that we respond in praise and worship (pretty subtle on my part, but trust me, it’s gotten me excited. You’d have to see me personally to see this wide-assed grin on my face).
Yesterday, in a group chat which was supposed to be for business purposes, these pastors kids who took the helm of the entire endeavor – well, one of them, anyway – took the opportunity to berate everyone else in the group chat. He was saying some pretty nasty stuff in the lines of, ‘these folks have worked hard and they got their cars, what the hell are you guys doing?’.
Okay, first off, that wasn’t verbatim, and second, let me explain. And I’m not exactly sure if any of them read what I have to write here but I’ll just say it anyway. I bought into their investment proposal because I knew other people who were in it and were getting good returns, basically I was getting good feedback. I didn’t know that they had other things to share – like the way I understand it they’d give incentives to people who actively got other people to invest. I thought to myself, hey, long as they don’t push me, and long as I’m getting my returns, I’m good.
So when this one pastor’s kid was saying all that trash, I was pretty disturbed. We’re already doing good. They themselves mentioned how things were going well for our ‘team’. There was no need for them to force any of us to do any more. I don’t know, maybe I’m not in the same wavelength as these people. They talk a whole lot about them being ‘ahead’, and frankly, not that I don’t care, it just disturbs me – but, wait. Yeah, that’s what got to me – when the girlfriend of the kid who was rambling was saying faith without works is dead.
Well, I wasn’t sure I was seeing red flags until I saw that. These kids… God bless their souls. I mean, now I understand why I was getting a lesson from God, a reminder of how His grace takes me by surprise. Earlier, I mentioned that it’s God that moves, and that we respond in praise and worship. These kids, again, God bless their souls, but they were basically saying the complete opposite: we should move, and God will respond with blessings, in the form of cars and money. Whoopee.
I’m loving how things are progressing this week. At one point I was pretty bummed out by these people talking trash, and then God shows up and takes out the trash, by way of realigning our focus to the things that matter – His grace, more than anything else. Today, I am thankful for God’s grace and truth, expressed first and foremost by Christ and His finished work, and then in reminders of His overwhelming power taking me by surprise, in the mundane and finite things.
I’m sorry, but this is all I have for today. I’m actually rushing to finish this, because I want it done just before I head out to meet some friends.
God bless you, I hope you enjoyed this.
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
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