Show All » 2009/09 » Teach yourself how to protect yourself
Thursday, September 24, 2009Teach yourself how to protect yourself
One month ago, ask me what my wife did.
She resigned from her work!
Correction, I asked her to resign from her work.
You would probably wonder, what are we thinking?
Have we lost our touch with reality or a better question would be, have we gone out of our minds?
Who's going to pay the bills, the mortgage, the car, the food and most of all, the internet connection?
Did I win the lottery? Did I inherit something? Did Bill Gates finally found out that I was his long lost relative? Did it rain money in our place?
These questions are related to our reasons.
That having God in our life is more than winning the lottery.
That our inheritance is eternal life.
That Jesus Christ is not our relative but a brother.
That our Father in heaven pours out the rain of abundance and provisions to each and every one of us!
Before you say anything, I did not bump my head, I am not drunk and I'm NOT on drugs when I wrote this blog.
Do you want to know why we did it?
Before we took this step, my wife and I talked about this plan exactly one year ago.
A lot of prayers were offered to help us discern our decision.
It was not a wreckless decision but a planned decision that includes a contingency plan and an exit strategy just in case something goes wrong with our plan.
Our contingency plan was to work at McDonalds as a crew (I'm going to ask my nephew to back me up with my application) and our exit strategy when everything goes wrong is to tie my hands and feet and throw myself in the river. If our exit strategy is successful, one of us instantly becomes a multi-millionaire (in Pesos) after we claim our life insurance. Jackpot!
Kidding aside, we really have a contingency plan and an exit strategy. But even though we have them, it was not easy to answer questions like, what about our mortgage, what about our bills, our car payments, our extended health benefits and so on. These questions are more than enough to knock our heads on the reality of our situation.
But why did we do it?
Why did we decide to do this in the midst of the entire crisis happening to the economy?
First and foremost, we were able to do this because we have an option. I took a licensing test to become an Insurance Broker. This is our contingency plan. This is our means to support our immediate needs. Again, our contingency plan was challenged with questions like, isn't it hard to find clients? Well, that's another story.
What we know, God has placed several dreams in our heart and deep within, we know our "God will provide."
What is important is that we are happy in what we are doing. What we are doing today is a lot tougher and challenging than what we were doing before. Regardless, this is what we want to do. Actually, that's all that matters. We do not expect clients coming to our office knocking at the door and begging on their knees so we can provide our services, although that would be great!
To receive God's provisions in the work we are doing, it requires a huge participation in our part. An example of our participation would be providing the best possible service and not taking advantage of our clients. When God gives us the grace to do something that we want to do, we have to participate with that grace to make things happen.
I know there are a lot of you who wants to do the things that we did. How good it is to say to your boss, "I quit." (I'm not teaching or suggesting anyone to quit your job today. Please don't!)
Your biggest enemy is fear.
Fear, however true, is one of the biggest factors why many people miss the opportunity to do the things they want.
Oftentimes, people go in circles. Many try to walk on the same path where they keep on failing when they should have done more if they take another path.
Warren Buffet once said, "Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks."
If you could not achieve growth on where you are, change vessels and move on. If you do not want to do what you are doing, change vessels and move on.
This is probably why God snuffs away your zeal in doing the things you hate simply because that is not His will for you.
Pursuing your dreams may require you to make radical changes in your lives.
While making those radical changes in your life, hedge your dreams and your family against any tragedy while pursuing those dreams. This hedge is your insurance. I will talk more about this later.
Every day I receive an email from Bo Sanchez's Truly Rich Club called "God Whispers" (by the way, you can receive this email by signing up through his website. My monthly contribution is part of my tithes. It's a great place to get your daily dose of spiritual nourishment).
As I am writing this blog, a part of his email that I received today says, "The most successful people in the world are those who fly high with their dreams but whose feet remain on the ground of reality. Some people are so buried in the soil of daily circumstances that they can't dream. Some do have great dreams but they're no longer connected to what's happening around them. Be a great dreamer and a great realist at the same time."
I mentioned from my last blog that my wife and I have a dream book. It is our request to God. I was a bit hesitant to post that section in my blog fearing that it is selfish. Yet, in the Lord's Prayer, Jesus encourages us to ask him for even the most ordinary need – our food. "Give us today our daily bread." (Matthew 6:11)
What kind of a god who could love us enough to be concerned about us when we are hungry?
This is our Father in heaven. He is real. He is reality.
How come there are times when we do not receive these provisions?
Some of the reasons why we don't get these provisions is probably because we don't ask (Matthew 7:7) or we are afraid to ask (Ruth 3:11) or worse, we do not believe that there is a loving God who would do anything for us (Matthew 21:22).
There is no secret recipe in receiving God's provisions. It's been taught to us over and over and over.
The problem is, we do not apply it in our lives.
Anyway, I'm already more than halfway with my blog and I have not discussed anything about teaching yourself how to protect yourself, so here it goes...
Let me start with Insurance.
Did you say Insurance? That's a rip off!
Before, I never believed in insurance. I would say – That's a waste of money. I don't need it. I don't have any budget for that. That's an expense! God is my insurance! God will protect me!
Whenever I see an Insurance Broker, I move away from them. Never had it crossed my mind that I would be one of them!
Today, I'm so happy to know that not everyone has the same mentality as I did.
Just imagine, if car manufacturers think the same way, to lower the cost of manufacturing, they would probably remove the airbag and seatbelts. To lower the cost for consumers, they can remove extra features like door locks and car alarms. Anyway, God will protect us from thieves and accidents.
My apologies for having a sarcastic example but I do hope you get my point.
When you get insurance, you are insuring yourself against a negative event. Insurance does not prevent a negative event from happening, but if it does happen and you are properly insured, the impact of the event is reduced.
For most of us, I'm sure we are working very hard to provide for our family and create wealth for our estate. You will likely agree with me when I say that you want your family to live the "good life" even if you were suddenly removed out of the picture. Am I right?
This is why life insurance is one of God's greatest blessings to mankind.
We may not be able to prevent our love ones to die because of an accident or our house being burned or our love one who would suffer from a critical illness. These things are bound to happen.
If you ask me why God allows these things to happen, I do not have an answer for that.
The scripture says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways." (Isaiah 55:8)
What I know is that God gives us people who could teach us how to minimize the impact of these events, when it happens.
Remember, Insurance cannot bring back someone back to life or restore your health but it may perhaps "dry" some of the tears in your eyes.
For one minute, forget about my profession. I'm giving this advice as a friend. Get one today!
Unless you are a very close relative of Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, there is no way to replace your income and create an instant estate other than life insurance.
Unfortunately, for a relatively small amount of money, many could have had their financial affairs setup in such a way that if something happens to them, their financial goals would be reached by your their families, instantly.
Insurance is a blessing, not a burden.
In my next blog, I will be talking about the two greatest fears, the fear of dying young and living too long.
Before I end, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our friends in Edmonton, Alberta who made our stay during our outreach worthwhile (I'm not going to mention names). You guys are the BEST!
May God bless you abundantly and may your homes be filled with love, joy and peace in all the days of your lives.
God is the greatest!
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