Not too long ago, I spent a few years selling long term care insurance. I liked the job because I was selling a good product and because I got to meet some pretty nice people. And, for the most part, the people I met were in about the same place in their lives as I was. They were planning for retirement in ten to twenty years with the hope that whatever they’d managed to save over their lifetime would be enough to live on.
Most of the people I talked to would be okay in retirement. But many might have to take their lifestyle down a notch to make it. Count me in that second group.
But there was a third group. It was rare, but I ran across these folks from time to time. These were people who were my age, mid-fifties at the time, but with more savings than they could spend if they lived to be 100. For some, life had just been good to them; for others, scrimping and saving throughout their lives with a lot of hard work made the difference. For whatever reason, they would be better off in retirement than they had been during their working years.
I remember interviewing a couple in that third group one night. When they explained their finances to me, it almost made me sick. I couldn’t focus on selling them insurance, so I got out of the interview as quickly as I could. I was angry and upset. They could retire in luxury that very night and live better than I was living working 60 hours a week. I’d barely be able to retire in 20 years and I wanted what they had.
That meeting stayed on my mind for the next week. I was angry with God. Hard times in my past were now keeping me from ever having what this couple had. And I blamed God for that.
But even in my anger I prayed. And through my anger He spoke to me. He made me look at what I had. And I realized that what I had and what I still have today is not lacking. I have a wonderful family, a home, a job, food on the table. I have always had what I need. Through the good times and the bad times, God has always provided.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:26, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or stow away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”
Listen, when we take our eyes off of God and put them on ourselves, we stop seeing what we have and start noticing what we don’t have. That’s when we start wanting what others have.
But when I consider what’s truly important, I really do have it all. Because I have my salvation. And no amount of money can replace that. In Hebrews 13:5, we read, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” So you see, with God at my side, I really am doing quite well. Because, by His grace, I count His riches as mine.
Thom Fishow
June 6, 2010