Friday, October 7, 2011

Amazing Grace

For several months, I have written a short article for my company’s eNewsletter that goes out about three times a month.  These are usually articles about money management and mismanagement.  But every now and then, I write something that hits a little closer to the heart.  The following article appeared in our July 22nd, 2011 eNewsletter.  I think you’ll appreciate why I felt I should post it here.

Amazing Grace  (As published July 22nd, 2011 in the Community Foundation of Grant County’s eNewsletter)
“I'm lookin’ at ghosts and empties…”  -Paul Simon
Over the course of the last few days I have been to Graceland about 87 times with Paul Simon.  I’m not sure what draws me back to that car, riding along the Mississippi Delta.  I am not experiencing a loss of love, or a personal crisis.  In fact, I don’t know if I’ve ever been so pleased with my life and the potential I see laid out in front of me.  And yet, I keep going back to that YouTube page, cranking up the volume, and listening to the story that’s nothing at all like my own, and yet so familiar in its description of life--somehow, we’re all just bouncing into Graceland.
Dave says, “Not until the pain of the same is greater than the pain of change will you embrace change.”  Don’t you hate that?  Why is it that change is a product of pain?  It’s as common to the human experience as getting out of bed in the morning.  Even the Bible says, “we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope.”  It’s the theme of every good movie, book, and story across the ages.  Conflict and resolution-that’s what makes up the living part of life. 
For example:  My best friend had her life pretty well mapped out when she graduated from high school.  (Didn’t most of us!)  She was going to the perfect school, she was planning the perfect career, everything had been set up as if the world revolved around her hopes and dreams.  But when the bills came due and the money ran out, the world stopped spinning and she fell flat on her face.  Big time.  She looks back now at that moment in her life and recognizes it for what it was, a Gracepoint.  She learned what it was like to work her way through college and pay cash.  She enjoys a debt free lifestyle and has opportunities to share her experiences with others.  Sure, at the time she felt like she was falling flying or tumbling in turmoil.  But that Gracepoint changed her life.
Are you going through a Gracepoint?  Maybe it has nothing to do with money.  Maybe it has everything to do with money.  Maybe it has everything to do with your kids, your marriage, your job, your church, you plans for your future.  Maybe it’s intensely personal.  Maybe it’s dramatically public.  Whatever it is, only you know what it feels like.  Only you can understand its depth.  And only you can seize the opportunity to embrace the change.  And so today, my fellow gazelles, let me offer you a generous serving of hope.  Keep your chin up.  I’m proud of you and I know that you’re going to make it!  And  maybe I've a reason to believe we all will be received in Graceland.

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