What Have You Been Doing Lately?

"Therefore, since Christ suffered in His body, arm yourselves with the same attitude, because He who has suffered in His body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing in what pagans choose to do - " 1 Peter 4:1-3

Whew - God is really speaking to me this morning regarding several different issues, but in the way that only women can understand, they are all related and intertwined, and so I'm slowly trying to digest it.

(Side note: my husband and I ran across a book once called "Men are like waffles, Women are like Spaghetti," referring to how for women, life is all connected and overlapping, like noodles on a plate. But for men, they have their own little compartments, neatly stored in their own little individual nook (maybe the only thing they do neatly, depending on the man), like waffle cubbies.)

So, needless to say, I'm having a noodle moment. So, hopefully you can follow me.


The main topic is something that God first started speaking to me about in college through Dr. Larry Crabb's book, "Inside Out." I highly recommend it. I have a list of about 10 books that have been hugely influential in my spiritual life. Some of those I  fully believe God led me to for that precise season. Inside Out was one of them, pretty close to the top of the list.

It's a very deep book, as Dr. Crabb is a deep person, so I won't try to summarize. Rather, I'll just say that part of it is about recognizing that so often we fall into the trap of approaching the gospel (and therefore our relationship with God) with the belief that it offers us relief from today's life.

Let me make a clear distinction here. By relief, I do not mean Hope. The Gospel always has and always will offer Hope, because Jesus Christ is our Hope. If your gospel doesn't bring you Hope, I would seriously examine what you're believing to make sure it's established in Truth.

What I am saying is that so often we want relief in the form of our problems being fixed, or better yet, eliminated. We can fall into subtle traps of believing that if we're just obedient enough, just get into the Word more, just pray more, than we'll feel better. We'll see change.

Yes - those things can happen. And often they do - because God pours out His grace abundantly and overwhelming on us, all the time.

HOWEVER, if we set our faith on the fact that God will always respond in the ways that we think He will to offer us relief, we will be set up for a fall. A hard one. And possibly into doubt...exactly where the enemy wants us.

Sometimes, the hardships we face - the disappointments, the hurts, the physical ailments - they won't go away. They stay, despite our spiritual disciplines and attempts. So, what then?

This is where I get excited - I know, sounds weird. Please stick with me.

This is where, if we will hold on to God long enough, we can experience Him a new and powerful way. Because what we see happen here is that He starts to strip away our false expectations of Who He is, how He moves, and what this relationship thing is all about with Him.

He reminds us, like in 1 Peter 4, that in this life, we will face trials (that's also in James 1:2-4).

"Therefore, since Christ suffered in His body, arm yourselves with the same attitude, because He who has suffered in His body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing in what pagans choose to do - " 1 Peter 4:1-3

Arm yourselves with the same attitude - in other words, expect it. Be prepared to suffer - not because you're making bad choices and therefore reaping the consequences - but because we're choosing to no longer make those decisions and you're therefore now facing new struggles.

Example - Because you're spending time in God's Word and developing a closer walk with Him, you know aren't as comfortable watching the certain TV show anymore. It's not that it's 'all' bad - it's just that there are a few off-color jokes, some sexual stuff that you used to just dismiss - but now you're just not sure you can rationalize it anymore. So, even though you enjoy it, you decide that it's not the best way to spend your 30 minutes in the evening anymore.

Enter very slight suffering. A little bit of dying to what the flesh wants in order to foster your close relationship with God.

But now, you don't have the connection with the co-worker you used to, discussing the latest episode over lunch. You explain a little of why you chose to not watch it anymore. Now the relationship feels distant and you really don't have anything to talk about.


Enter more suffering - loneliness, missing a past friendship.

I'm sure you get the point.


This really challenges me in some ways, because even though I don't consciously subscribe to a faith based on my convenience and comfort, my flesh is very invested in those things and rears its ugly head, A LOT. And so it's in those moments where I have to choose what I am going to fix my eyes on. Will I allow the discomfort, the unmet need, the disappointment direct me to Jesus, to seeking His Presence and a deeper understanding of Who He is, or do I choose to focus on the lack.

Back to the example above. I think part of our problem is that we stop here. We sense God directing us to take that step, to give up the TV show that in turn led to a loss of relationship. And then we focus on all that we've lost. All that God has told us to give up, or has seemed to have taken away. And we question, assuming that if God has called us to do something, then it will come with a certain set of emotions, that it will look differently.

And we miss Him. Because instead of looking to Him in place of those things, we're now looking back at what we've given up or lost.

But if we persist, if we continue to meet Him in His Word, to seek His face, what we discover is a new sensitivity instead of the numbness that the media we were exposing ourselves to had caused. We now have a greater sense of His direction and discernment on decisions. And we have peace because even though it's not all fixed and okay, we know that we're exactly where He wants us. 

And perhaps, just perhaps, your co-worker begins to take notice of the changes in you. Even though she may not be quick to say anything, she's thinking and wondering what is going on. She's challenged by the stance that you've taken. And God begins to move in her life as well.

And we gain a new perspective that pain is not always bad. That despite our hurt and loneliness, God is still there, speaking and directing us. That His Presence isn't mutually exclusive with our disappointments, but that He meets us in them and shows us that He's greater than our fears and lost dreams.

Our FPU Story

So, we are getting the privilege of sharing our Financial Peace University testimony this week in the two sessions we have currently going at our church. In preparation, I wrote out what will probably be the long version and will get condensed, especially since my husband is the main one sharing tonight. :) Neither one of us are big public speaker types, but we won't refuse a time to share how God has been SOOO faithful to us and to give Him the glory for where we are today.

So, I thought since i had written it up anyways, I would just share it here, in hopes that it will bring encouragement to anyone that may be where we were 3 years ago, and to anyone working the Dave Ramsey plan now. Keep at it!

Our story -

Thanks for letting us take a few minutes to share our FPU story with you. We were introduced to FPU by James and Cynthia Caine, who were willing to share their story and how God was using FPU in their lives. It encouraged us and led us to join FPU, and so we hope that in the same way, God will use what He has done in our life to encourage you.

We were married in November of 2005. We both entered into our marriage with a very simple financial plan – just that we wanted some money. But we both didn’t really have much else in regards to that. We were never really careless with our finances, neither being big spenders, but we still didn’t have a handle on it. All we did know was that we wanted to be good stewards of what God had given us, so we decided to join a Crown Financial small group about 3 yrs into our marriage. We learned a lot of great biblical principles about why we should be good stewards, but left without really knowing how to get there from where we were.

At the time, we figured that because our income was greater than our monthly expenses, our bank account should be growing each month. But that wasn’t the case. In fact, there were even months we had overdraft fees. And at the time, our only emergency fund was our credit card, which we also used for large purchases to pay off over time. We did not have any savings, and definitely thought that having a car payment was just how you did things. And even though we weren’t ready to start a family at that season of our lives, I couldn’t help but worry in the back of my mind how we’d ever be at a point where we could afford an addition to our family if we couldn’t even really make ends meet, just the two of us.

Fast forward to the fall of 2008, where we had the privilege of being in a small group with James and Cynthia Caine. Once they shared their FPU story with us, Immediately I could sense this was something God wanted to do at Community, and in our own lives personally, and so FPU was implemented the following January of 2009.

For us, one of the big light bulb moments during the first few weeks of FPU was about the detailed budget. Since we had never found a budget that worked for us, I was personally pretty intimidated by this point. (Budget was a bad word around our little one-room apartment, something I believed meant that I would have to do without what I wanted.) When we got into this part of the course, and realized just what money we had been spending, we were shocked! We had no idea that we were spending so much money in some areas, and definitely would not have intentionally set aside that amount of money to go towards things like eating out, where we had nothing to show for it later (except maybe in our waistlines).  All of a sudden, instead of being something restrictive, the budget became a source of empowerment, allowing us to consciously choose where we wanted our money to go each month, making sure that it lined up with what we valued and agreed upon.  It was really a life-changing moment for us. And we were able to identify areas we could start to put some of our monthly income into paying off debt.

Now that we had a plan, we were able to really face our debt with gazelle-like intensity. But we still knew, that because we both weren’t very good with finances, that we needed God to be doing all this through us. He honored our attempts to be obedient and faithful stewards, and there was time and time again when He provided either new forms of income, or met a need through some other way.

And you know how I mentioned that little fear in the back of my head that we’d never be able to have a baby. We could see a little bit of light in the distance, knowing that the money that was now going towards debt could someday be freed up for a baby.

As a testament to God’s goodness and faithfulness, only 7 months later, we were finished with Baby Step 2 and debt-free, except for the house. And we no longer had the idea that we needed a car payment, and definitely had given up the habit of using a credit card, period, forever. Two short months after that, we were pregnant with our first child, who is now 19 months old.

Even now 3 years later, we’re still as committed to the program as we were the first few weeks. Even though it’s taken us a little bit longer than average, due to having a baby and other life events, we are excited to say we’ll be finishing Baby Step 3 in a couple of months, and will be able to start investing for our future, at the ripe old age of 30. Praise God for His faithfulness and patience with us now and in the future!

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I'd love to hear your story as well!