Upside Down Morgage, Lost Retirement, Looking for Work

Many people said the housing market was on a bubble. It had to burst. I doubt that anyone thought it would be a tsunami when everyone started to get out of the game. Home owners are the ones left to turn out the lights. Now, the lights are out but someone has locked the door. The home owner can't get out. He owes more than he can sell.

Financial managers were investing people's retirements in all types of creative schemes. Billions were being made each year. It continued as long at the commercial paper supply was in great shape. One day the money was all gone. No business could borrow the money they needed to continue the merry-go-round. People started jumping off as quickly as possible. Many people listened to their financial managers advice. They told them to sit still. Things will improve. Is this what these financial managers did with their own money? Now, many people have had their retirements dwindle so low that we won't see a recovery for ten to fifteen years. That's a long time for those whose retirement was to come within those ten to fifteen years.

Some have held a job with a company for a long time. They have gotten into those scary fifties. This is the time when employers don't want to hire an individual. There is a greater chance the older worker will have health issues. A sick worker will not only slow production but will also cause health costs to rise as there are more sick workers. The EEOC says that an employer cannot discriminate because of age but we all know they do. You really can't hide the age when you go for an interview.

I am not Pollyanna. I don't think we should all go home and sing, "The sun will come up tomorrow. . . ." (Yes, I know that was Little Orphan Annie.) Yet, I am also not hopeless. There is nothing we can do about some things. We cannot force someone to refinance our mortgage. We cannot force the stock market's revival. We cannot force someone to hire us.

The question is what can we do? The answer to this will tell who you really are. You allow yourself to be a victim if you decide that you can quit, start living off the government, family members, the church or the benevolence of people who give you money as they drive by. You are a hero if you work hard, quit complaining and keep focused on getting out of the hole you are in. Stop looking for the hero to rescue you. Be your own hero.

I am one of these people who has lost all of his equity in his home and nearly all of his retirement. I will work on. I will not expect the government or anyone else to come bail me out. I believe in a morning for those who work through the dark night. Nevertheless, if that morning does not come, I will still be glad I worked on. I will also encourage as many as I can to work on. We are not a nation of victims. We are free.

Victims are just slaves who don't know they are in slavery.

Compassion Cannot Be Regulated

There are a lot of people hurting during these turbulent economic times. Many people have seen their savings dwindle to nothing as the stock market continues to fall. Many have seen their A.R.M.'s ask for a LEG too. It is hard to sort out which people are hurting because of the bad economy and those who have simply been irresponsible.

All the people who boarded the Titanic nearly a century ago believed it would reach America. It was the ship's maiden voyage. It was advertised as unsinkable. No one predicted the ship would hit an ice berg and sink a few days later. Many of these people lost their lives. None of the passengers were irresponsible. Those in charge should have paid attention to the reports of ice bergs. They went forward in their "unsinkable" ship.

Church emphasizes the need for compassion for those who are hurting. We should do what we can to help people through tough times. We cannot and should not enable people to continue to make bad decisions. There is no compassion in co-dependency. We relieve ourselves of guilt at the expense of keeping people in a bad situation.

We encourage compassion but cannot force it. We encourage people to help one another but we cannot force that either. That is something that must come from the heart no matter how dire the situation.

Compassion is all but lost when a person's benevolence is exploited. The Bible says that the person who does not work should not eat. In other words, if you refuse to work we will refuse to give you food. That seems hard but it is best for any society. Freeloaders must suffer the consequences of their own actions.

Years ago I served a church in Houston. One of my deacons was approached by a man who claimed a close relative had died and he needed money for a bus ticket to get to the funeral. This deacon gave him the money he needed. A couple of weeks later this same deacon was doing a job on the other side of Houston and had the same man tell him the same story. The deacon did not respond with compassion this time. The freeloader was lucky to leave with all his teeth.

Many times government seems to help people when it actually hurts them. It seems to be helping many people who are hurting financially. Often, those people have made bad decisions and the government is helping them through what appears to be a tough time. The tough times never seem to end for these people because they continue to freeload on the system. The government takes from those who have worked hard and gives to those who won't work.

The government continues to make lots of noise about the compassion we need to have for those who are hurting. Government is like a baby. It makes a lot of noise on one end and has no responsibility on the other! Compassion cannot be regulated. It is always an act of one who makes a personal contact or has personal knowledge of the pain of another. You start with a need and respond with compassion.

I encourage people to be compassionate toward others. Our church feeds over a hundred people each week. We try to get to know their situation and meet the need of hunger. We have decided that many other needs are beyond our abilities. We do not pay rent or utilities because we can feed so many more people a week at a time than just the few that we could help otherwise.

I am proud that our church helps people. We do so because we have a compassion for others which resides in our hearts. I believe it is Christ within us that makes the difference. It cannot be regulated. It comes from within.

Your Most Valuable Asset

Often people think that ministers don't know anything about business. They don't understand that the church is the largest business that there is. They also don't understand that instead of the church needing to learn how to be business-like from secular business, the secular business needs to learn how to operate from the church.

Businesses think that they must have controls in place to assure them that they will operate without graft, embezzlement or theft of any kind. They do not realize that they can never control trust. Trust is the most valuable asset to the employee. It is the most valuable asset to a spouse, child, parent, minister or anything else you may be.

You can't make someone trustworthy. If you try, they will play games.

There are two types of employees that you don't need: those who will not do what you tell them to do and those who will only do what you tell them to do. People who are playing the game of only doing what you tell them to do are not trustworthy. They will blame all mistakes upon you. They will use, "I was only doing what I was supposed to do, " as their excuse for doing something that is obviously wrong. They should be fired, not given more controls.

Many businesses don't understand trust. They write big manuals telling their employees what they must do and what they must not do. They get more and more specific and employees find more and more ways of getting around the rules. In fact, more rules will encourage more ways of doing things to get around the rules.

I heard that a hotel directly above a body of water had signs on the guest rooms forbidding people from fishing from their balconies. They had horrendous problems with the guests continuing to do so after the signs were posted. The guest stopped fishing from the balconies soon after the signs were removed.

A Christian camp had a rule that the children attending the camp could not throw rocks at the horses. However, it didn't say anything about throwing rocks at the cows. The children got the idea from the rule book to throw rocks in the first place. More rules actually increased bad behavior.

Is everyone trustworthy? No, but we need to stop coddling them because there was no rule to prevent them from doing what they did. A guy across the hall from my college dorm room started a fire in his room because he was cold. He opened the window, lit a few books on the floor and went to sleep. He was told to clean it up but was not disciplined because there was no "rule" which said he couldn't start a fire. He was untrustworthy. He should have been kicked out!

Trust is your most valuable asset. You do not want to lose the trust that another gives you. You do not want to abuse their trust in you.

Our country has gotten crazy with lawsuits filed by fired employees. We have to warn them, have rules in place, create a paper trail and a whole lot more stuff that keeps us from doing business. We must realize that we do not need employees we cannot trust. They should be fired rather than coddled.

If trust were given to the employees and protected by the employee, time cards could be in pencil, expenditures could be taken at their word and work completed well would always be expected. This is why the number one job of a boss is to hire people who can be trusted.

Trust is earned by faithfulness and time. Once you have it, you will never want to lose it. It is your most valuable asset.

How Valuable Are You?

I had a guy once tell me that he wasn't worth anything. He was saying this because he realized that he had done horrible things in his life. I told him that he couldn't be farther from the truth.

We are all extremely valuable. God gave His only Son for us. Jesus didn't die for trash. He died for those whom He loves. That should tell us something about the way God looks at us.

God sees someone whom Jesus died for when He looks at every one of us. It doesn't matter if we are Christians or not. God loves us anyway.

That doesn't mean everyone goes to heaven. Only those who believe in Him have eternal life- meaning a life with God forever. God forgives our sins based on our belief in Him- not on our goodness but on our faith.

I pray differently because I know God loves me. He loves me so much that He will not withhold any good thing from me. However, He defines what is good for me just as I would define what was good for my own children at one time. I didn't let them eat M&Ms all day long and forget their vegetables. It may have been what they thought was good but it wasn't really good for them. God gives me whatever is good for me.

I have hope because I know that God loves me. Nothing can come into my life without God's knowledge. His knowing means that He already has a solution for my problems. I have hope in His solution.

I have forgiveness because I know that God will always love me. I can't do anything that will take away God's forgiveness from me. He has me in His hand by the faith He gave me. He will never let me slip out. He forgives me because of His love.

I know that I will be with Him in heaven because He loves me. God will never break His promise of taking me to heaven for I believe Him and I believe in Him.

God's love make us valuable. How valuable are you? You are as valuable as the love God has for you. Who can measure that?

Quit While You're Behind

You have heard it often, "Quit while you're ahead!" It is actually bad advice. My advice isto quit quickly when you start losing.

People often work longer hours when they are making no money. Cab drivers work well into the night when there are few convention goers or tourists around. They have not met what they would call their daily minimum. They work longer and get little for their work.

On the other hand, during conventions and big tourist attractions they shut down early because they have met that daily minimum early. Obviously, this isn't the best system. It would be much more cost effective to work longer hours when there are many customers and quit early when there are few.

You can apply this to just about anything. Work much harder when you are winning. Often, the best thing to do is quit doing what doesn't pay off.

Of course, there are reasons to keep working. If you have a conviction that this is the right thing to do you should keep doing it. You should follow your convictions. For example, if you believe you should keep telling your neighbors about Christ even if they won't listen to you or if you believe you are supposed to be a writer though no one will publish what you write, you need to keep doing it.

When you start winning, however, you need to work harder to keep winning. When you have a bad day, call it a bad day and go home early.

This is used often in sports. If the play works, keep running it until it stops working. If the defense works, keep it until it stops working. Don't stick with something that doesn't work.

Now, wouldn't it be nice if the government could learn this lesson?

Boogie Men, Monsters and Ghosts, Oh My!

We told our children that there were no boogie men. We told them that monsters did not really exist. We told them that ghosts were only their imaginations. Why did we lie to them?

Lots of people have boogie men, monsters and ghosts. They are those things that keep us awake at night. We choose not to think of them because it upsets us. We act like they don't exist and we try to keep ourselves occupied with other things. But our monsters are real.

Boogie men are those fears that would seriously upset our lives. They are the fears of losing your job or your house or anything that is precious to you.

Monsters are those problems that you truly have. It is the boss that you can't get along with. It is the debt that you can't pay. It is any seemingly unconquerable problem.

Ghosts are the things said about you that you that haunt you. Maybe a teacher called you stupid. A parent told you that you never do things right. A spouse (former) said no one could love you. You can't shake these feelings and secretly you are afraid they are correct. What do you do?

Most people are living with these boogie men, monsters and ghosts. They put up a great act in pretending that they are not there but they are bothered by these demons almost everyday. They can be defeated but it is very scary for most people. They would rather live with them rather than defeat them.

Most people are like the people of Israel cowering before Goliath. He was big and strong and had a very loud mouth. He taunted and ridiculed the army of God. Each of the soldiers thought that it would take a big soldier to defeat him. They had known about God but they really didn't believe Him to be very big. They needed a boy to defeat Goliath who had a very big God.

David saw the problem as God against this seemingly unconquerable problem. David didn't even think that it would be a close contest.

These boogie men, monsters and ghosts are coming against a child of God. You are someone He loves dearly. Do you think He would not fight for you as much as He fought for David?

David used what he had to defeat Goliath. He took five smooth stones and a sling. He ran toward Goliath. This must have shocked him because the rest of the army kept running away. David could run forward because he knew God was with him.

Do you know that God is with you too? Nothing will make Him leave your side. You will not face your problems alone.

David either knocked out or knocked down Goliath first. He ran forward and finished him off with Goliath's own sword. David would never have been able to reach Goliath's head as long as he was standing.

How can you knock down your giant? Tell the giant that he is not as big as your God! Make that giant small in comparison to the size of God.

Our boogie men, monsters and ghosts are living in our hearts. Tell them who you are. They have no place in your life. Tell God who He is. He is the Almighty. Turn these giants over to God and let Him work through you.

Remember these things:

There is nothing more powerful than God.
There is nothing which will diminish His love toward you.
He asks that you allow Him to tackle your problems.
He knows exactly what you need and what you need to do.
He will act on your behalf.

Now, rejoice for your giants are about to get what's coming to them.

Watch How You Judge Others

Have you heard the latest blonde joke? Blonde jokes may be funny but they by no means represent who blondes really are. Many are very intelligent people. They are easy to pick on because many of us would like to be blondes and we join in our envy with others in making fun of them.

I am short. I have heard a number of short jokes. I had someone say to me that I didn't act like a short man. I wondered if they believed the short jokes. Maybe they knew a couple of short men who acted a certain way and assumed it was their height that caused them to act that way.

People assume that overweight people are jolly. They assume that their weight reflects their capricious attitude. They may assume a number of other things about corpulent people. None of them may be true.

We take a look and make a judgment. That judgment may or may not be a true to that person. We may judge good things upon another that is also not true. We may say that Asians are hard workers or that people with glasses are studious. These may be equally wrong.

Jesus told us to watch how we judge others. In the same way we judge we will be judged. Do we really understand that? We cannot look at another and condemn that person and not expect that our own failures will condemn us. We cannot make a judgment based on the way a person looks without expecting that same judgment to fall upon us.

I realize that God is the only one who can know a person's heart. I don't even know my own many times. I have reason to believe that some people are repentant of the things they have done wrong while others are just sorry they got caught. The repentant person owns up and takes whatever punishment and the others complain about the way they are treated.

Yet, even these judgments of the repentant and the non-repentant are not based on the outside look of the person. They are not based merely on their words but on their continued actions. We must be in the business of discerning who is someone to hire and fire, who is worthy to listen to and who we should follow.

So, watch how you judge. Never judge by what you see alone. Never make a full judgment of a person or a people by one sight or one experience. Look at their continued actions and, just maybe, others will look at yours.