God Sighting | July 29th, 2008

Debt. It's ugly and oppressive. Over the past few weeks I'd been living out of the negative values of my bank account. I have also been praying that God would provide for me financially as I sought first His kingdom. Since the end of my term as a music director in mid-June, the flow of money has also stopped. But today, His provision clobbered my debt, in His usual--unexpected--way.

I joined a group of pastors and staff from my local church to eat lunch just down the road at Rubio's. As we stood in line, one staff person, Helen, with extreme enthusiasm, offered to pay for my meal. She commented over a piece of information she'd learned the previous night: that her son hadn't paid me for the last few months of math tutoring I'd provided him. I had previously charged for tutoring services, but got to a point where, in my mind, I wanted to tutor her son because I considered his family like, well, family. Charging for tutoring services was really the last thing on my mind. But Helen insisted on more than paying for the meal. She wanted to pay me in full for the past three months of tutoring her son, and she did!

Thanks so much, Father, for your continual provision, for keeping Your eyes attentive to the needs of Your child.

God Sighting | February 19th, 2008

Last night I found myself expressing to God that I was running out of money, and how I'd like a little bit more money to bless people with a free meal, take them out to starbucks, etc. Well, today as I was on my way home from my physical at MEPS, I got a call from someone close to me. This person told me that since I was working full time (but not for money) they wanted to support me in the work that I did. So starting today, they'd give me $200, and $500 every month thereafter. The lesson: Asking God for money isn't bad; it's all in the motive.