Someday I will write a complete essay on my relationship with money. Suffice it to say right now, that money is the source of learning detachment from all things but God. What a gift.
In our married lives together, we have sent all our kids overseas on very little money. Time and time again, through numerous examples, we have stepped forward on faith alone, and survived, when the answer was not in sight. We have lived without things we previously thought we could not live without. Somehow you get to the next day and the next step and an answer comes forth. The time when you think you must buy groceries, is the time you figure out some very good, creative meals with what you have left until payday.
We are now on the verge of each of us earning good income, which is something we have not had in many years, if ever. With my Phd, I am now earning decent income, paid LOW by university standards and academic jobs but it’s a decent job in these hard economic times. Al was unemployed for a full 8 mos. after moving here. His first paycheck is now expected in the mail. We are beginning a new chapter. The trick is detachment, so that if it stays or if it goes, your faith is unaffected and unshaken. Money is not yours to keep anyway. The only permanent thing about it, is the memories or opportunities you leave behind, from how you used it when it happened to pass through your hands.
“O Son of Man! Should prosperity befall thee, rejoice not, and should abasement come upon thee, grieve not, for both shall pass away and be no more.”
“If poverty overtake thee, be not sad; for in time the Lord of wealth shall visit thee.” –Baha’u’llah.
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