Why?? (Part 3 of 4)

I'm continuing my series of posts explaining what we felt the Lord gave us as reasons He was leading us into a Sabbath year. At the time we were still very fearful of the idea and we specifically asked Him to give us some reasons that were compelling enough to cause us to say yes to this crazy idea, in spite of all of the unknowns. (sorry for the hiatus...I'll finish this series someday I promise)

Financial Freedom...Part 3 of 4

Undoubtedly the title of this one will strike some as confusing. Financial freedom is typically the term used to describe someone who has reached a level of affluence that allows them to be free from the fears, anxieties, or pressures associated with not having enough money. Often times it is associated with retirement, or those with high paying jobs or large amounts of passive income. So how could someone walk away from their only source of income for an entire year, and make the claim that one of the reasons they are doing it is financial freedom. Obviously there's a disconnect here...

Let me back up a bit...when Elizabeth and I were first married she was a student and I was making close to minimum wage. We lived a very simple life...largely because we didn't have any other options. Our apartment was the size of a hotel room, the one car we shared was running on a prayer, and our grocery budget was 80 dollars a month. It was not uncommon for our monthly income to fall well short of our monthly expenses...on paper that is. Yet in those years we never borrowed a dime, never missed a payment, and always had enough. We got to experience the truth of Paul's statement to the Philippians where he says "My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19 And the trustworthiness of Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount where he urges us to "not be anxious, saying 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'...for the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Matthew 6:31-33 Our lives were rich as we experienced the Lord's provision in a very tangible way. Our faith grew as He showed up time and time again...always on time...never too soon so that we didn't have to trust, and never too late causing us to despair. We were experiencing financial freedom. Financial freedom because we knew who our provider was...and we trusted in His ability to provide...and therefore had freedom from fears, anxieties, and the pressures of not having enough.

Isn't that the essence of this financial freedom everyone in our world is seeking? We don't want to have to worry about money anymore...and our thought is that if we could only accumulate enough...then maybe we could finally feel free and secure. The problem is...we start running into questions like...how much is enough, and what will I have to sacrifice to get there, and what about if I start falling in love with the money I'm accumulating? Slowly we as believers start looking eerily similar to the rest of the world in regards to money and how we handle it until there is all of the sudden no noticeable difference at all.

One of the glorious implications of the scriptures I mentioned above is that in Christ we actually get to experience financial freedom every single day of our lives...but what you may be surprised to hear...is that it has very little to do with how much money is in your bank account. If financial freedom is the absence of worry about money...not only is this available to us...it's actually commanded of us. When Jesus said "don't worry"...what He actually meant was "don't worry."

So how do we do this...

I'll go back to my own story...as time went on in our marriage I began to have a considerable amount of success and favor at Starbucks. I went through 3 promotions in the span of 2 years and quickly found myself making more money in a few months than I used to make in a year. I'm thankful for this and know it was the Lord's kindness. The only problem was...a slow creep began to take place inside of me. It wasn't something that happened overnight and it wasn't something I even had much awareness of at the moment. As paychecks came in and money began to accumulate in our accounts I began to believe a lie that in my opinion is the enemy of true financial freedom. I began to believe that I was the provider...and the supply of all of our needs was dependent upon my own ability to continue to bring in the money. I began to find my security in the growing number at the bottom of my bank statement, instead of the promises of the One who own's "the cattle on a thousand hills" Psalm 50:10 (which I'm pretty sure is an Old Testament way of saying He owns everything). The more I saw myself as provider and my bank account as security...the more pressure I felt to fulfill that role and pad that account...and subsequently the more stress and anxiety I felt about money. In other words...as my bank account grew...I experienced less and less financial freedom.

Now obviously this isn't what the world will tell you. The world in fact tells us the opposite...but my experience tells me the world is lying. If financial freedom is what you want...perhaps it has much less to do with what you can accumulate and much more to do with who you trust.

We are taking a Sabbath year because somewhere along the way we started to forget who our provider was...and we want to remember. When the Israelites were first commanded to take a Sabbath year Moses knew they'd be asking the same questions we get asked a lot..."And if you say, 'What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?'" But listen the Lord's response... "I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of the old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives." Leviticus 25:20-22 I think God had lots of motives for commanding those folks to take a Sabbath year...but I think more than anything else He wanted to make it abundantly clear that He was and is THE provider. We can work and toil to provide for our families...and we should...this is good and God commands it. But lets be careful that we don't in the process buy into the lie that what we are doing in those 6 days or 6 years is what our ultimate provision depends on.

In taking a Sabbath year we are creating space for the Lord to remind us once again of what our money has often times caused us to forget. Our belief is that Jesus wants to be intimately involved in every aspect of our lives...the problem is we are so self sufficient and capable that we don't create much space for Him to show up. In taking Sabbath years we are creating some room for Him to show up (and 5 months in I can tell you He truly has...but that's another blog post down the road).

We are conscious of the fact that the American story tells us we should be saving our money so we can retire and give our kids a big inheritance...but we believe we are inviting them into an even better story than that. As a family we are stepping into a story where we get to experience our Father and His goodness in a deep and tangible way. We get to see Him be the provider He promised He would be. We get to pray and ask Him to show up...and then watch Him do it. And if we leave our kids with nothing else...we will at least have left them knowing that they have a really good Dad in heaven who knows what they need down to the smallest detail, and who always, always shows up at the perfect time...not just because we told them it was so...but because they got to see it.