There is a perennial question that haunts me whenever I have weeks like this.

What’s a week like this?

It started with one car overheating and having to be taken to the dealership to get diagnosed. Unfortunately – the turnaround time doesn’t seem to be anytime soon and in the meanwhile – we were down to one vehicle.

24 hours later the second vehicle shudders to a near halt and suddenly we’re scrambling to obtain a rental car and the emergency fund and correlated security that we’d try to build up is suddenly looking more like an endangered species on the way to extinction.

This all coincides with the struggle I’ve been in over the last two weeks to try to work my way towards some level of financial abundance. I have a tendency to think that these events are God’s way of trying to communicate with me.

A verse comes to me:

Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven. (Proverbs 23:4-5)

Proverbs 23:4-5

This verse definitely speaks to me because this is exactly what I have been doing over the last two weeks – trying to work enough to get to some level of financial security and abundance. The timing of this unlikely event makes me feel like potentially there is a message that would go something like: “Don’t get distracted by the temptation to try to make finances your security. Instead – relax, wait on God and trust Him to make sure that all your needs get met.”

The rational part of my brain thinks this is soo crazy. How can I possibly not work hard as I can? Isn’t that laziness?

But the natural [unbelieving] man does not accept the things [the teachings and revelations] of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness [absurd and illogical] to him; and he is incapable of understanding them, because they are spiritually discerned and appreciated, [and he is unqualified to judge spiritual matters].

1 Corinthians 2:14

I have the hardest time with this. I don’t want to be lazy. I have all these goals to accomplish and I want to be a good steward. Everything I see from the people who are super-successful seems to point to extremely hard work being a vital component of the recipe for success. I’m not sure how to square the circle.

I’m probably going to need to just take God’s word as truth and his schedule as a good model. Working 6 days is probably OK, because that was the schedule he kept. Working till my body is screaming is probably due to me making money the most important thing in my life and it is probably a good time for me to reconsider my relationship with work at that point.

Fly or Fall.