Common Sense Reborn

Writings on the Wall Part 3

¹⁰Be still and know that I am God. (Psalms 46:10)

Good morning y’all. The verse above is a personal favorite of mine. It is a strong reminder for all of us, that we just need to be still and let God be God.

I have seen this personally play out in my life while on deployment, and it happened in my finances. When I was asked about going on the deployment to Poland, I immediately jumped at the opportunity. I wanted to be close to the fight, to do anything I could to help the poor people of Ukraine. Well, while in western Poland, the war in Ukraine was as distant to the Polish as it is for the United States, which was surprising and disappointing. So, while those opportunities did not present themselves, I had a lot of amazing opportunities to grow my career in the National Guard, and as I have shared on here, to help grow the Kingdom of God. What I did not expect was the financial struggle my family and I would face while overseas.

On my first deployment, to Afghanistan, I found myself bringing home more money than I had ever made per paycheck in my life. But Afghanistan had many things Poland did not: all the incentive pay for it being such a dangerous place to operate out of, and tax-free pay for being a combat zone. The last part caught me by surprise, because I was under the impression that any pay earned internationally, could not be taxed as income due to it being earned outside the United States. Well, by the time I learned this critical miscalculation on my part, it was too late to do anything but be still and let God help us through our financial troubles.

The first four months of the deployment were extremely tight. I was bringing home close to $2,000 less a month than what I was making working comparable hours and days with the Police Department. We were barely paying all our bills, with no money left over for anything extra. I ended up taking out a personal loan to help carry us through the holidays, then God took care of the rest. Money kept coming to us, whether from gracious gifts from family at Christmas, birthdays, etc. My military pay got a substantial bump at the beginning of this year which boosted us back to the surface of breaking even. Then I filed my taxes early and the refunds we got hit just at the right time to enable my family and I to find some short financial freedom. Even as I returned home from the deployment, when it seemed like the money was going to be tight for us again, I walked into my precinct right at the perfect time, as our timekeeper was working on TimeSheets (yes, incredibly, Savannah PD still enters each employee’s hours manually). I had to make a few calls and push some people to go out of their way to help get me back to a “Military Leave With Pay” status and submit a TimeSheet for paid Military Leave. But after three days of pushing, I had an extra paycheck show up at just the right moment. And now, for this next month, as I spend the time soaking in moments with my family, before I get back to work for the PD, I will be able to do so without the stress of worrying about how I am going to pay my bills.

There’s more to this story, which I will get to tomorrow. But I can attest that through our financial stress over the last eight months, I have grown closer to God, trusted God more than ever, and just taught my anxiety to be still, and know that He is God.

God does not want us to let money rule over our lives. He wants us all to be financially free. However, the world sees financial freedom as having millions of dollars, big trucks, expensive things, exuberant houses, flashy jewelry. Those are all items of idol worship. All we need to live comfortably can be done so living a modest life with many jobs available within this great country. It cannot be reached just working minimum wage in America, which is a conversation for a different day. But if you live your life the way the American dream was designed: focus on your education when you are young, start in a career field you love in your early 20s, work your way up through the ranks of your career during your 30s, retire from your first career in your 40s and start over doing whatever you ever dreamed of, you can live a very comfortable life in America. If college, trade school, tech schools are not your thing, you could join any branch of the military and work your way up through those ranks and find yourself with twenty years of service when you are 38; or have a very nice retirement when you hit 30 years at the very young age of 48. I have not lived my life like either of these two examples. But as I improved my relationship with God and Jesus, I have seen that they have helped guide my life back on course. If I had never allowed myself to be separated from my Lord and Savior, I am sure that I would be in a much better financial standing at this point of my life. While I do have some regrets, I realize that the trials and tribulations I faced helped me become the person I am today, with a much better testimony to help bring others to know the loving, gracious, merciful Jesus Christ who I know.

I will not take any more of your time today, so I will leave you with this new single from Maverick City Music. It is part of a massive album release (the album is over three hours long, but worth every minute to listen to).