The Fast and the Furious 5 Principles of Financial Wisdom:
- God owns it all. Psalm 24:1
- Set Long Term Goals. Proverbs 16:9
- Spend less than you earn. Proverbs 13:11
- Avoid a consumptive lifestyle. Ecclesiastes 5:10
It’s off to the races everybody!!! GO! GO! GO! Round and Round fast as you can and it you win on Sunday; they will buy on Monday. Quick Serve Restaurants, microwave food, text messaging, instant messaging, 24/7 access via smart phones (is that really that smart?). Minivan’s with TV’s for each kid…so they are occupied between soccer practice, piano practice, karate practice, traveling baseball, basketball, wrestling, football and the list goes on and on and on and on and on and on….well you get the picture. Whew, it’s all about getting things done fast, fast, fast and life at times takes a furious pace. At what cost?
When effectiveness becomes the victim of efficiency; the casualty is our relationships.
I point my fingers at you and know that I have four more pointed at me, thus this blog is to remind me to slow down too! So Jason…what on earth does this have to do with finance? Well this blog is about faith, fun and finance. When we run at 100 MPH how on earth can we stop to event give our nose time to smell the roses? How can we even take time to enjoy the fun we are having, let alone type our expenses into Mint.com, Every Dollar, or Quicken (yes, those are apps you can use to track your finance. There’s the finance part. Ta Da! ). Money is to help you build memories but if you’re never “in the moment,” because you are always thinking about the next item on your checklist, it’s all mute.
So what is the solution for all this fast paced, no margin, face paced lifestyle? God gives us clues in the double entendre: FAST.
ACTS 13:2 “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
Luke 18:12 “I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”
Luke 4:2-4 “Where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God tell this stone to become bread.”
Prayer and Fasting, yes whatever type of fast you think you need in your life and prayer. If Jesus physically fasted for 40 days, maybe you can too to break your FAST food addiction. Maybe you need to FAST from tech at least once a week where you just don’t pick up your smart phone and unplug from the world (unless you are reading this on your phone. Kidding seriously let the darn battery die and leave the charger). Maybe you need to FAST for a season for kids’ activities? WHY ALL THIS FASTING? So you can claw back the most important things in your life, those things which technically don’t cost money but they sure can cost you; YOUR RELATIONSHIP with God and your family and friends. See the 2017 January’s Blog Post for more on that.
Sincerely,
Just Jason