explaining heaven to bears<\/em>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like somebody asking if we chose our home because it has flush toilets.<\/p>\nOur house does have flush toilets, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad it does, but it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t occur to me as the primary reason for living here. In fact I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give them much thought at all. I might change my tune if one of them ever stopped doing its job; but then I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d just fix the problem and go back to not paying them much attention.<\/p>\n
I understand that if a person had never seen a flush toilet it might be so unique and the prospect of having one in the home so potentially life changing that he might, indeed, live in a house just for the toilet. But for most of us the novelty has worn off. Our homes already have them, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re useful, even critical appliances, but they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not our main reason for living in the house.<\/p>\n
I remember when money was the main reason for doing what I did \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfor a living\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em>. Some days the job was okay, other days it was miserable \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 but I always looked forward to payday. And the actual work involved in \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcworking for the money\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em> wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily worse than what I do today. And it isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that my \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcworking for the money\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em> job was meaningless. The manufacture and sale of our products were necessary to industry, contributed to the local economy and employed people in the community. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t employ anyone in the community right now and our products aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcnecessary to industry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em>, so on that scale, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcworking for the money\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em> contributed plenty to society that my current job doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.<\/p>\nThe biggest difference between \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcworking for the money\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em> and what I do now, the reason that making money takes up as much of my consciousness as flush toilets, is that now I feel like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m doing what I was put here for and before I felt like I was waiting to do what I was put here for. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the difference between living and waiting to begin living.<\/p>\nI still have frustrations at work but, if anything, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the frustration of not doing enough. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the underlying frustration of waiting to begin.<\/p>\n
Does that make sense to you?<\/p>\n
I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwork for the money\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em> anymore. I work for God. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell people who I work for very often because preachers and other \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcreligious professionals\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em> have made \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcworking for God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em> into a clich\u00c3\u00a9. But if you get down to brass tacks, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Who you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re working for when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing what you were put here to do, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m doing so that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Who I work for.<\/p>\nAbout the money:<\/em><\/strong> my comparing money to flush toilets doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that money doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter to me anymore. Money matters \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 every bit as much as flush toilets. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great to have. It makes life a lot easier. Like flush toilets, money has become a necessary domestic device. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d miss it if I ceased to have access to it. But it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fill my waking hours. When I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need it I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think about it and when I do need it, enough is there to meet the need. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that life has become so much more important, that money gets pushed back to a supporting role. Besides, working for God and worrying about money is infinitely more stupid than working for IBM and worrying whether or not the company will make payroll. God can afford you \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 relax.<\/p>\nI feel like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m explaining heaven to bears again. Jesus did it much better.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? <\/em><\/p>\nAnd do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. <\/em><\/p>\nDo not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> (Luke 12:22-26, 29-31, 32-34)<\/p>\nI love my job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (1 Corinthians 2:14) At True Potential Publishing, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been checking into making all of our printed books available in e-book format as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1,15,458],"tags":[709,103,811,807,808,810,448,809],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":441,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions\/441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}