“No doubt about it! God is
good— good to good people, good to the
good-hearted.”
Psalm 73:1, The
Message
For the bulk of my pastoral ministry since 1991, we have annually been the beneficiary of a tax return. Between my moderate salary, a one-income household, four children and earned income credit, we have regularly received a nice bonus right before the Martin birthday season begins (between April 20-May 21, five of the six of us celebrate birthdays). For many years, our return was also our vacation money for the summer ahead and with it we were able to go places while the kids were still all home. But this year when Rick our tax guy sat down with us he had the task of informing us that we owe big time to the tune of $2,000. Gulp.
It's not hard to figure out why. All
our children are grown now and, with the exception of Charlie, living
on their own. In 2013, Linda went back to working full-time and since
then both our incomes have steadily increased what with bonuses and
pay-raises on her side and extra pay on my part due to part-time work
coaching, shoveling snow and substitute teaching. What's more, since
I've never earned enough to pay in, Refuge has never withheld other
than Social Security tax. So, the math is pretty simple. In
retrospect, we should have been thinking ahead.
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| You can find a picture for ANYTHING at Google |
So there it was, like a bad smell in an
elevator, an uncomfortable moment with no clear way to excuse
yourself from it. But here's how God has provided so that we could
pay the bill in full. Several years ago when we wanted to put our
financial affairs in order, I sat down with a Dave Ramsey
representative who took look at our budget. I had come to him wanting
to talk about setting up a pension and retirement fund. He looked
over our books and his advice to me was before setting up an IRA, we
needed to take care of some of our debt. But before we really worked
hard at that, we needed an emergency fund in case anything broke down
unexpectedly while we were working diligently to reduce our debt
load. He recommended a thousand dollars. We decided that two thousand
dollars was more in order. It took us awhile, over a year or more but
eventually we had it and converted it into a revolving CD. And then
essentially forgot about it until its annual renewal date every
January.
When Rick first hinted that we would
need to pay in a significant amount this year, Linda and I both
experienced a measure of anxiety, discouragement and perplexity.
Where were we going to come up with that kind of money by April 18?
As I recall, we prayed together asking God for help and provision. I
had some money from last fall's Cross Country season and she had the
money she had been setting aside with the hopes of buying a new
furniture set. But even by pooling this amount we knew we were going
to be short. And then Linda thought of the CD: I guess this counted
as something akin to an emergency.
A week ago Thursday, Rick came to the
house and took us through our State and Federal returns and confirmed
our worst fears that yes, we would have to pay in a total of $2,000.
But knowing that the means to address this bill was in hand, we could
confidently place our signatures on the return and send them off with
their respective checks enclosed. That evening, we went out for
dinner in Rice Lake and then afterward decided to stop in at a few
stores to do some window shopping. Furnish 123, a furniture shop in
the old Wal Mart building, was our second stop after dinner and as we
walked in the door we were greeted by Jessica, our neighbor a few
doors away from us. “Hi, neighbors! Here for the sale?”
Unbeknownst to us, the special they were running for a few more days
included a sofa, love seat with a free recliner tossed in. We checked
out several and Linda fell in love with one set in particular. When
Jessica informed us of the price it was exactly what Linda had in her
furniture savings account, a thousand dollars. She was able to pay
for it entirely.
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| It ended up being a real good day after all |
He's such a good, good Father. On the
same day we were informed that we owed $2,000 he had already helped
us years before to have that money set aside for just such a
contingency. What's more, what started out to appear to be a day of
doom and gloom turned into something of a red letter day for Linda as
she was able to buy the furniture set that she liked after saving so
diligently for it. God is good and we can trust him with daily lives.
We're already taking the steps we need so that we don't get a
surprise like that next year. It'll mean less take-home pay but God
wants us to pay our taxes and therefore I'm counting on him to help
us get by with less. One thing is for sure: we can trust him with our
present and our futue, even if we haven't been planning as we should
have been all along. Because He's that kind of Father, good and kind
even down to the color of the furniture.
When my skin sags and my bones get brittle,
God is rock-firm and faithful.
Look! Those who left you are falling apart!
Deserters, they’ll never be heard from again.
But I’m in the very presence of God—
oh, how refreshing it is!
I’ve made Lord God my home.
God, I’m telling the world what you do!
Psalm 73:25-28, The
Message
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