Wednesday, June 1, 2011

A Calculated Risk or Faith?

In 1993, I had been working for my employer for nearly ten years.  In the process of climbing the corporate ladder, I had reluctantly accepted a promotion to the headquarters office in Cleveland, Ohio, and we had been there for close to three years.  We found a great church home and met some very gracious friends who were willing to love us in spite of the fact that we didn’t want to be there. 

I had hit a plateau in my career, and as the result of corporate decentralization, I still had a job but I had absolutely nothing to do.  I would take the train into downtown Cleveland everyday and try to find something at the office to do.  Everyday I would expect to receive a notice that my job had been eliminated, but six months had passed, and I was still there.  It was then that I decided to talk with Cheri about selling the house and moving back to the Atlanta area to start a business.

I mentioned the idea to Cheri, fully expecting her to tell me I was crazy.  We had two young boys and we were living on a tight budget.  But I had calculated how much money we would have if we sold our house and estimated how long we could live with no income.  If we approached the end of that time and I wasn’t making money, I was still young, had my CPA license, and knew I would have a good chance of getting a job.  When Cheri said yes to the idea, I thought we were both crazy.  But we put the house up for sale, and soon after, we were moving back to the South.

As I walked away from my job, I thought we were exercising great faith in God.  We believed he would provide for us, but we had a safety net.  We had a sum of cash in the bank and I had my accounting background to fall back on just in case things didn’t work out.

Contrast that to someone you know who has sold or given away all their earthly possessions and left their home, family, friends, and country in response to God’s call.  They didn’t know what lay ahead and they had no safety net if things didn’t go as planned.  Yet, they moved forward and didn’t look back because they knew God had called them to do something.  That is an example of faith. 

There are many ways that we can live by faith, but we often equate faith with a calculated risk.  What are you doing right now that requires faith?  Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” 

It’s easy to ask the question.  It’s much harder to answer it.  I pray that Jesus will open our eyes and teach us to live by faith in Him.

2 comments:

  1. Hi
    Just got curious on what happened to you afterwards?
    Did you eventually used up all the savings and did you end up applying for the CPA job because the business did not turn out?
    Thanks,
    Tin

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  2. Tin, thanks for asking. After five months, I had made no money at all and decided to seek employment. I took a short-term contract job and God turned that into an opportunity to launch my business, as that contract led to my first client. God has blessed my business over the years and it's been amazing to see Him work!

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