A Process of Faith and Finances

         Moving into full time ministry has been a ‘faith’ transition for me.  I have had a stirring for quite a while about moving into full time ministry but for a number of reasons and personal resistances I wasn’t able to make that move.  The decision to make the move was precipitated by a couple of significant conversations with my brother and a friend from the past who had recently made the move into full time ministry.  They were within 2 days of each other and was a wake-up call that God had something new and different for me.  There followed lots of prayer and seeking God’s direction and within a month we had made the decision that I would retire from the insurance business and move into full time ministry.  The problem boiled down to ‘when’ that would happen.  

              

       I set an arbitrary date associated with my 62^nd birthday because my pension would be at it’s fullest and I could contribute for another year into my 401(k).  I received my Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation 10 years ago and have focused on helping people with retirement planning.  I know what that needs to look like for someone to retire and do the things they want to do.  I figured by then we would be okay but the problem lay in that I left God out of the planning.  He had a different timetable for me. 

      With the encouragement from my friend Brian I sought God as to the right date.  I did that and went through an interesting process where God helped me acknowledge that I had done well with my retirement planning but when it becomes His plan it might look a little different.  First, I have no idea how long I am going to live or how much I am really going to need in retirement.  Second, with the fragility of the market God could take away the entire amount in the matter of a day or two leaving us totally dependent upon Him.  Third, that dependency would require that I have to trust Him for providing our resources totally and possibly permanently.  Fourth, if He did that it would be for my growth and development and would have a redemptive nature to it. 

      It’s kind of funny that once I was able to make that connection the worry and fretting about finances disappeared, my level of faith in God’s provision increased dramatically and there was a renewed zeal to make this change sooner than later.  It was a great experience to give the balance of the  process to God and be able to have faith in His ability and desire to provide for us and lead us into a deeper walk with him.  A hard bit of wrestling with God but the outcome has been peace and a greater confidence in His provision.