Times are tight.  It’s no secret for anyone.  Money is harder to come by, and when you come by it, you have to work twice as hard to get it.  Everyone knows that nowadays.

When I was in my early 20′s. (Words I never thought I’d say) I was a bar manager.  What that meant was I got paid 800 dollars base every week.  I also got to take 4 bar shifts of my choice. What that means is I was making an additional 500-800 dollars depending on the week.   Do the math.  It was a good amount of money.  I’m not saying I was rich, but what I am saying is I had money.  Now, what I was spending that money on is something different.  I was spending that money to fill a void.  I spent it to feel accepted.  I spent it (at least 100 dollars a day) to get high/drunk.

Now.  I work as an IT professional.  I’m not going to say my salary, because I’ll probably get laughed off of the interwebs, and we don’t want that.  I have money, but it’s tight.  But what else I have is incomparable. I have a wife who loves me, a strong support from friends and a little baby girl on the way.  I have a found love from Jesus Christ, who died for everything I did when I was at the bar.  And last but not least, I have peace.  Peace.

So, as I sit here convicted, constantly stressing about my bank account and how much money goes into it versus how much comes out, I am reminded by my Savior and Lover of my soul, I am rich in so many other things that money doesn’t really matter.

AND: If I sit around all day long and obsess over money, and argue about money, and cry about money, and pray about money, and think about money, and think of ways to get money and, did I say cry about money?  I might just miss a second to tell my wife I love her, to imagine what my daughter is gonna look like in 15 years, what I’m gonna tell her the first time a boy breaks up with her, what I’m gonna tell that boy the first time she introduces me to him, what an amazing love I’ve found in Jesus, to pray for friends safety (and/or recovery) to pray for my wife’s healthy pregnancy and to just give God all the praise and glory I can.

Amen.