Last week’s post on change being all about deciding to do it went over well enough that you guys even shared some really great stories about how you’ve used my ramblings to give you some direction. I’m THRILLED to read those types of comments. Some of you also asked me for some specific things where this mindset could be applied, so I thought I’d take today to tackle that idea through the idea of being “poor” (financially).
I talk to people nearly every day who are struggling to make ends meet. Financially, things are tight and there is often little hope of things getting any better. By their very situation, most would call them poor. I think that’s wrong. You may not have any money, but you are not necessarily poor. Poor is a state of mind. If you are short on cash, that doesn’t mean you’re poor. If you are behind on all your bills, that doesn’t mean you’re poor. If you don’t know where your next meal is coming from, that doesn’t mean you’re poor either. You’re only poor when you admit defeat, sit down and decide you are poor. This is a very serious (and bad) place to be. When you are poor, you stop believing in yourself. When you’re poor, you start looking at others and believing they are evil for having more than you do. When you’re poor, you decide the government (or the church, the community, your neighbor, etc.) owes you something because you’ve been wronged. In other words, poor is the decision to give up on succeeding financially. Rather than make this a political statement, which is something most people want to do because it is an easy out, I will say this: Jesus said the poor will always be around (Matthew 26:11), but it is up to you whether or not you decide to be one of them.
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