The View From 1776

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Wealth, happiness, and freedom has been sought by many and found by few.   Often, it is because they let “human logic” set the course instead of God.  Having lived a life of Blessing after Blessing, fulfilling one dream after another and only in retirement, accumulating what seems like wealth to me (a few hundred thousand in stocks), I often reflect on why my life has been so happy.  Even in my marriage of 35 years, we haven’t ever let disagreement lead to a fight or harsh words.
 
How could this life be possible?
 
The only thing I can think of was how “unhappy” I was in college and the parties, the alcohol, the breaking of laws, the friends in jails, etc.  I had been raised in a Christian home, yet, had gone so far from what could be called a Christian life.  Then, one night, on a “pity party for one,” I was driving around and it was like God hit me on the head and said “grow up and follow me."  That night, I made the decision to leave college and my so-called friends and the partying and go into the military and learn how to follow rules, while I got back with God.
 
My first duty station was in Spain under Dictator Franco.  For two years I saw how people live in a dictatorship, saw many beautiful places and read my Bible through and then through again, so I had the proper context for later studies.  The military turned out to be like living a dream. I loved being an electrician and being on the old World War II subs and sub support crafts. I saw Germany, Belgium, Holland Norway, Jamaica, Cuba, and other places.  Then after the six years in the Navy, I did all kinds of jobs I wanted to do, some just to see what it was like and for a short time, or like being a detective in a police dept. for five years.  On and on, with my wife, we saw every state in the lower 48 on vacations or moves to new jobs.  Never fired and almost alway asked to go to work someplace new, I had little stress.
 
How could this be?  The only thing I can think of was that when I decided that night to get back with God, I meant it and lived the rest of my life by it.  Every new job was with the feeling, after prayer, that it was God’s will.  If it didn’t seem to be God’s will, I turned the job down.   Having a wife that prays with you and joins you in the decisions the two of you, with God, reach, makes a big difference in a relationship and your life.
 
When you think about it, whether there were laws from man or not, I am not free to do what I want.  I am free to choose to follow God’s will or to not follow it and since I follow it, I am a slave, a servant, not free, but rather, obliged to do as my “Master” wills.   Yet, I feel free. I am happy.  How can I be happy if I am not free?
 
What I believe is that I am happy because God leads me to things I enjoy doing. I get to use my mind, my talents, my skills that God gave me and knows what they are, to the fullest.  I am at the peak in Mazlow’s hierarchy of needs, “self-actualization."   What I do, in and of itself, motivates me to do more of it.  And when it no longer motivates me, it seems God always has something new for me that does motivate me. 
 
Now that I am retired and play the stock market more for the challenge than money but with strict sell rules to not lose what God lets me gain.  Now, I find I have the money I needed to bring my wife’s ailing mother and invalid sister into a new home my new-found wealth allowed me to have and care for them and pay for a lot of things, I couldn’t have before.  It was like each time I needed something, God provided a way for me to get it, either through hard work, friends or increased earnings.
 
When I bought an RV park (one of my dreams come true) I borrowed even the down payment.  It was a small park and I owed $125,000 to the seller, and the “wheeler dealer” I had bought it from, saw how I was bringing it out of bankruptcy caused by the previous owner, and tried to foreclose on a technicality.  I let my customers (campers who stay the summer) know that I might lose it and they shouldn’t worry, I would refund any money they had paid should they decide to leave.   Soon, several campers came to me (they had known me less than a year and were seniors) and offered to loan me the money to pay the guy off, no strings attached.  They didn’t ask for interest or terms or anything.
 
So, I paid them 1% over the going rate, took out a lien on the property with them having first rights, and kept the campground.  How can something like that happen if God’s hand isn’t in it?   Is there ever sadness in my life?  Are there ever health concerns? Have I had times I didn’t have as much money as I would have liked to have and had to sacrifice a little?   Of course.  Yet through it all, I had a peace of mind I never had before that “pity party night."    (Later I started a non-denomination church at the park and gave the sermons.  I stuck to “sin” since, as I told them, that is my area of expertise and what I have lot of knowledge and experience in.   With my troubled youth, I also found it helped me to help juvenile delinquents and reduce our crime rate 75% in just over 3 years working with young criminals).
 
Could I lose it all tomorrow?  Yes.  How will I react?  I don’t know but I do know that all the years of Blessing is worth a lot to me.  I got to help people and I was helped by people and saw so many wonderful things and places.  Yet, the whole time I was a slave that only got to go where my Master sent me.  When I was in police work, I got myself into so many fixes and yet, in 5 years of fulltime police work, I never got hurt and never had to hurt anybody.  Yet, I made more arrests than any other police officer and had a 99% conviction ratio.  I was welcomed in the “minority” part of town just as much as in the “majority” part of town because I had a reputation for “fair treatment” of all people I arrested.  I know it wasn’t me though. It was my Master looking out for me.  His “power” was greater than any power a police officer might have.
 
King Solomon was wealthy and many look at that, but I think about what that wealth did for his nation.  It employed and protected and served and did so many things a “poor” nation can’t do.   The same is true with the wealth of many millionaires I have known.  Many were very good people.  They used their wealth to create businesses and jobs that met the needs of thousands.  Many treated their employees fairly and were a huge asset to the community and the nation.  I saw them give to charitable organization more than a hundred people could give and not make a big deal of it.
 
Some died and left trusts that provided scholarships and continual support of things a community or organization needs.  While they were gone, the good they did, kept on and on, doing more good for people generation after generation.  I can see why they, like Job, were blessed with wealth.  They knew how to be good stewards of God’s money, God’s property, God’s material things.  They were good servants taking care of their “Master’s” goods.  Like the faithful steward in Luke 19:

“And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, [2] that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.... 16 Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. 17 And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.”
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He was given authority over ten cities but, he was still the servant of the king and the cities were the king’s cities.  He wasn’t really free.  Do you think he really cared he wasn’t free when given that much authority and ability to make his own decisions as to how to please his king?  I can’t speak for him or others, only for myself.  I don’t mind being a servant or slave to my Master, because he treats me so well and will for eternity.
 
Do I fear my Master?  Yes, for deliberate violations of his will can be punished just as he punished Israel when they from time to time abandoned God.   But, I also fear not pleasing God for another reason.  My Master will be hurt because he has tried to lead me in love to what is best for me and I have rejected that love.   I love my Master so much that I don’t want to be the one that hurts him.  I fear hurting my Master and that fear is maybe even stronger than the fear of punishment for my Master has already promised me eternal life and I know I have that secured.
 
Ah!  The life of a servant isn’t so bad after all.