I have been honored to get to review a book by Joseph Sangl. Joe came to Ottumwa early in 2009 to teach us about becoming Debt Free. We had a great event and learned a ton. From this I have been able to begin financial counseling for folks here in Ottumwa. He has a new book out, What Everyone Should Know About Money Before They Enter The Real World. (Find it here to purchase.) Before I start, I am a huge fan of Joe’s financial advice; so that being said, here goes.
The concept of the book is to provide young people with the tools they need to succeed once they launch into the “real world”. If you have kids no matter how old, this book is worth the purchase. First you read it then work out a plan of how you can work with your kids on these concepts. If you have kids that are already out of the house, you better get on it because time can be money.
The heart of the book are chapters 4, 5 & 6. Always Save, Avoid Debt and Student Loans respectively. If your kids are like me they aren’t able to define savings or to save. There is no concept for that in a young persons mind. This book does a great job of explaining how important saving is in the long term and it doesn’t come from you, the parent. My favorite chapter, Avoid Debt. We think debt is okay in our country and that is just not true. Debt nearly tumbled our country into a depression this year. We should be doubly aware of the treachery of debt in these days but I think quickly we forget. If you can teach your kids through this chapter and let them know it is okay not to have debt they will be leaps and bounds ahead they their cohorts.
Finally the Student Loan chapter, # 7 is truly refreshing. A degree comes on the same piece of paper no matter who’s name is at the top. Talk with your kids about the cost of the decision regarding going to school. Is the total investment (4 years of increasing tuition, room, board and books) really worth the degree your getting? It is okay to determine that it isn’t. The other part of this chapter that was awesome was the part of on finishing in 4 years. School is fun, but it is awfully expensive if you are jacking around. Joe spends some time explaining opportunity cost – if you are business major you should know this one and it applies to you too if you take 5 years to get a 4 year degree.
One critique of the book is that Joe spends some time at a level a bit higher than a young person is probably thinking about. In one section he talks about his goals of paying for his kids first house. If this book is truly for young people it will be very hard for them to connect to that point.
Overall, this book is long overdue. Get it, read it, use it with your kids, have them read it and put it into practice. The advice is clear, practical, understandable and implementable. You can’t beat that.
Well done Joe, thanks for saying what needed to be said.
Filed under: Ponderings
Genesis 3 continues…
As we move into Genesis 3:11 we start the blame game. How predictable is human nature. God asked Adam what was up and he blamed Eve. Eve blamed the serpent. And so begins the game of no accountability that we still struggle with in all walks of life.
Be honest with yourself and remember a time when you tried your best to get out of being held accountable for something. We all try to do it one time or another. We think we don’t “deserve” whatever will be handed our way so we wriggle out of it. I used to do that a lot. I have learned much from that posture.
As a sales rep I learned to own up when you make a mistake. The funniest thing happens. The customer is so wierded out by you being honest and appreciative of being accountable for your actions that they forgive the offense. When you screw up. Own it. Don’t own too much but own your screw up.
If you don’t the fingers start pointing and the treachery begins. What is gained from the blame game? Do you ever get relief from your mistake? I believe it follows you around almost permanently. It hovers behind you fighting for position with everything else you have maneuvered around. But when you own up to what you have done, it is forgiven.
God treats us the same way. When we own our sin and repent, we are forgiven. That doesn’t mean there isn’t punishment for our sins against God. There are, but it means we can stand before God and wink at Jesus for the save.
You can read for yourself in 14 – 19 what it meant for mankind when Adam and Eve sinned. It isn’t pretty. Today’s reality wasn’t God’s intention for us. It is pleasing to know he meant better for us but we screwed it up. My bad.
Filed under: Cambodia
I haven’t done a Cambodia update in a while, so I thought I would share some ponderings regarding our trip.
We leave in 3 months. It sounds like a long time but with all that is going on in those three months it is really not much time. In the upcoming weeks we will be working to finalize where we will be working and officially what we will be doing while we are there. It is funny that so much of the trip isn’t definite but so much of it is already complete.
Have you been on a mission trip before? I haven’t. I’m a first timer so I am unusually pumped. I have no idea what to expect. Any help, advice or what not you could give me would be splendid. I don’t want to get too excited but I already am. I don’t want to have expectations that are too high, but I already do. I have no idea how to prepare physically, mentally or spiritually.
I know nothing I do will prepare me fully for the experience. I will be changed, I can’t go and not experience change. That is good. I need change.
Filed under: Ponderings
I am listening to a message by Erwin McManus. He is the pastor at Mosaic in LA. Two weeks ago he told the congregation that they will be giving away the weeks budgeted giving. So the money they counted on to run the church they will just give away. Anything above that they will keep and pay what bills they could.
Not only did they decide to do that but they also decided to raise all the money it costs to build a house via Habitat for Humanity, all the same month. They gave away so much in just a few weeks that it is unbelievable.
The thing that caught my attention was how Erwin described what it meant, not to the people that received the funds or that were blessed by the money but what it meant to the givers.
Maybe for the first time in their lives the givers realized money wasn’t the most important thing to them or in their life. Isn’t that a freeing moment? When money no longer owns you? Sweet freedom.
I struggle with that. Letting money drive decisions instead of God. I am here for God and because of his will for my life. Money will not drive our decisions. Happiness, God’s will and His Spirit. I already feel relieved.
Filed under: Ponderings
Sorry for the long stoppage. I took some time at home because of all the snow, Christmas, etc. I am back today and excited to be back. Tons of thoughts to share.
Something that hit me this morning as I drove in the snow was the path I was on. Snow totally covered the road and I was driving where the track had been worn. I couldn’t tell you in which lane I was or even what side of the road I was on. But I was diligently following the path that had been worn in the snow. This morning I asked an odd question. Why?
Two things popped to mind. It was the path laid before me and it was easier. But if you take a look at the life of Christ, when did he take the path that was already laid before him? When did he take the easier way? At point in his life did he not know why he was on the path he had taken? Never did he not know his purpose. His purpose was and is the redeeming of all of us. He has not wavered and he has not left that path.
Every day we need to remember what our purpose is and be willing to veer off the path that is before us so we can follow the one we are called to. Christ isn’t stuck in the ruts of the unknown. He knows where he is and where he is going and he calls us to that path. Do not worry that the path isn’t well marked or well traveled. It is still the way.
Filed under: Reading
We are at Genesis 3:7. I hope you are keeping up with our reading pace : ) (one verse a day, it is a tough pace I know).
They noticed. As soon as the sin was complete, as soon as the defiance was over, guilt started. Guilt is another thing God never intended for us. It would be an unnecessary feeling if we lived in union with God. Guilt is one of the devil’s favorite tools. Guilt can be used to drudge up ancient history on a day when you are flying high.
Satan can use guilt to crumble us. The most interesting part is the immediacy of the onset of guilt. For some it may even start during the commission of the sin so that absolutely no joy is had at all. We are led to believe that this will be great…but we are disgusted before we can even enjoy it and guilt. Can’t our sin snowball out of control because of the guilt we feel? We start scrambling to “make things right” and of course we just make it worse.
God wants us to not feel guilty. Ultimately don’t sin. When you do, repent and do better the next time. Repent immediately and start improving then as well. Don’t let guilt hang around you because you deserve it. Repent of your sin. God will take the guilt away with it.
Let God’s glory reign over you, not guilt.
Filed under: Ponderings
I was reading in the paper this morning that “even though the majority of Americans disapprove” of the health care bill it is moving forward behind closed doors.
Ouch. So much for a representative democracy (funny, the first time I typed that I did democrazy, ha!). When did this happen? When did the will of the people get trumped by political agenda? I know it hasn’t just happened. I know it has been going on for quite a while but come on.
I am not a political mastermind. I don’t follow anything to do with it usually. But one can’t help but read one of the 30,000 articles that have been written regarding this health care bill.
I don’t have a solution. Except maybe this, let’s put it to a national vote. Let’s set-up a date in March for everyone to vote on this. Costs too much? The health care bill is more than $1 trillion and I don’t even really know what that means. I think we could spring for a vote. I know it wouldn’t work and that isn’t how this system of government was designed, but it wasn’t designed to be dominated by professional politicians who are more concerned about their re-election than what is best for the country or their constituents.
Oh and how would I vote? I haven’t read the bill yet. Because it hasn’t been posted for public viewing yet. Like it was supposed to be. Sweet.
Filed under: Reading
If the story of Adam and Eve were made into a movie, this part would be intense. The music would be dramatic and bold. The camera would zoom in soap opera style, flashing back and forth from the fruit to Eve. That’s right, Genesis 3:6, the pinnacle, the climax of the story, thus far. I assume this whole thing didn’t take long. Can you imagine the disappointment God must feel over that moment?
If you are a parent you can get a small sense of what it must be like. You set boundaries for your kids (if you don’t, that is another post or maybe book) that you intend for them to keep. And when they don’t, it breaks your heart a little bit. “Why did they disobey me? Don’t they respect me?” The old adage of the punishment hurting the punisher more than the punishee has never been more true than in the Garden of Eden.
God intended on Adam and Eve living in his presence in the garden. Worshipping, praising and loving him. God made Adam in his image so they could hang out. But, God had to banish them from the garden (if this is your first time through the bible, we are getting to that part, sorry for spoiling it) to toil in pain and despair. How He must weep over that day.
And Adam just takes what Eve gives him and doesn’t ask any questions. Isn’t that awesome trust? “She wouldn’t do anything to hurt me, so no worries.” Adam didn’t even think that because he had no idea what hurt was yet. There was no second guessing Eve’s intentions. We have lost that innocence. We rarely trust so completely. We wonder about the motives of the other person, even our spouses sometimes. How far we have fallen from what God wanted for us.
The human race has serious issues with doubt, trust and respect (at least the western world) and I believe it all stems from this moment. We were hurt by someone we trusted so our pride (Satan) tells us not to ever let that happen again. We lost what was intended for us, forever and we pick-up something never intended for us. Isn’t that the quick summary of all of mankind?
Part of re-establishing Heaven on earth is allowing ourselves to trust again.
Filed under: Reading
Even though you aren’t reading this part of my blog, I am going to stick to it. It is my journal for my reading through the Bible again this season. I am now in Genesis 3:4-5. So here we go.
This is a great text. The serpent (Satan) tries to make it seem as if God is keeping something awesome away from us. But God is actually protecting us. Do we really want to know about all the evil in the world?
Do we really want to know about the genocide in Rwanda, the Sudan, Somalia, Europe 1936-45?
Do we really want to know about the sex trade in Thailand, Cambodia and Guatemala?
Do we really want to know about child soldiers that are trained to kill at 10?
Do we really want to know about child pornography?
God was trying to protect us from ourselves. His intent was for us to only know good. To only be in relationship with him. So why did God make it so hard to stay away from the fruit? Why did he make it pleasing to the eye, why not make it look gross so we wouldn’t be tempted? Why did God give us limited free will?
Aren’t we all just like Adam & Eve? When was the last time you looked around and said something to the affect of “this sucks, I can’t have or don’t have something” ? It probably wasn’t that long ago. We have access to basically everything that exists, but we focus on the things we don’t have. Do we really need a new car? Or do we really need a bigger house? Do we really need only that brand of clothes? Really?
Take a look around, not at other people’s stuff, but just at ours and think, “Wow, God gave me all this. And I’ve done nothing to deserve it.” Sometimes we might say, “Well I worked really hard for all this stuff, so I deserve it.” Really? You are telling me that the farmer who lives in Ivory Coast West Africa doesn’t work as hard as you and therefore doesn’t deserve as much?
You had nothing to do with where you were born. You are well blessed just by your location. You’ve done nothing to deserve the blessings you’ve received, so be thankful for them. Don’t focus on the one thing you don’t have. The one thing that truly doesn’t matter. Remember, the fruit on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil wasn’t the only fruit in the garden.
Really.
Filed under: Ponderings
I must admit I like old Christmas songs much better than new ones. There are only a few of the “newer” songs that I really like. One of them I heard today always makes me cry. It is called Christmas Shoes check it out. There will be crying.
I can’t really get into too many of the new songs. Give me the old ones. I have been singing them to Isaac for a couple weeks now. I downloaded a bunch of the lyrics, it has been fun. Some of the lyrics are a little weird. But I still love them.
So if you had to choose, and you do; which would you go with. The old ones or the new ones. A little of both is an okay answer but I think you need to pick a side of the fence : )
