(Reminder, this is just a journal of my mistakes, experiences, and thoughts along my journey to having a closer relationship to God. I do not claim to be an authority on the subject. If you want to know The Way, read the Bible.)
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OK, this seems like such a God thing that I have to mention it. Have you ever had something go wrong in your life, something that you had put so much into that you thought it just had to be successful? And it failed? Well, in your mind it failed anyway.
Though I really try not to talk about work and money in the God Blog, money is talked about many times in the Bible. Money is a part of life, and God is a part of everything we do.
I pray daily for God to help me with my business and my programs that I create to help other presenters move their audiences. For four years I have been working on my new Secrets of Storytelling program. Recently, when I launched the program, I went out on a limb and invested over $20,000 in creating and launching it. Over the course of the past decade, I have launched many programs, and the data has been remarkably consistent and clear. To help you understand, the first day of the launch is always the second biggest day, and the last day of the launch always doubles the first day. Like clockwork, every time.
What does this have to do with God? A lot. I leveraged all that I had with the intention of getting the program into the hands of the people it could help. Good intentions do not, however, always mean expected results. Though I do think some kind of good does always come out of good intentions, it just may not be in the manner or category we expect.
After the first three days of the launch, it was clear, based on the historical data of my launches, that I was not going to come even close to getting my original investment back, and unless I borrowed money, my own home mortgage would be in jeopardy this month. Even if I doubled my sales on each of the last three days, I would barely break even. Then, feeling defeated, I remembered hearing Joel Osteen tell a story of Mary and Martha’s asking Jesus to help Lazarus.
John 11:21-22(NIV)
“‘Lord,’ Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died.
But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.'”
So, I prayed about that. Knowing full well what my historical data has been, I turned it over to God. To say that my last three days were astounding would be an understatement. The last day of the launch was the biggest day in the history of my business.
What made it even more of a God thing and that told me I had to share this in a post was the fact that I had told this story to my girlfriend, Cathey, on the way to Easter service on Sunday. During the service, the pastor used the exact passage I mentioned above. In fact, here is the picture I took while sitting there astonished. My next level of faith is when these miracles happen, I’m no longer astonished, just confirmed. I’m still working on having mustard seed faith, faith the size of a mustard seed.
Thank you, God, for Grace, Truth, Love, and Laughter,
Darren
P.S. Thank you, especially, for grace.
Want to see more God Blog posts? https://darrenlacroix.com/category/godblog/
Dear Darren,
HOW I KNOW GOD EXISTS
I have only just seen your God blogspot. I had the very good fortune to see you in Canberra many years ago. I purchased quite a lot of materials at the time but sadly never followed through.
The reason I bought the materials was that of all the visiting presenters I had seen, yours was the one that gave concrete ideas as to how one could immediately improve one’s speech eg by establishing different parts of the stage as representing different periods of your life.
The reason I am writing tonight is this and I believe you know it too, is that you KNOW that God exists. So often what is talked about Iis faith, (or Faith) that has always suggested to me that you could be mistaken in your belief.
Through a series of circumstances I fell into harder times than I had expected after my early retirement.
I started busking on the streets here in Canberra singing with a guitar.
Friday was my main day and I could sing and play guitar standing up for 8-12 hours at a time.
What was going on here? When i was singing barbershop everyone would be worn out after 1 or 2 hours.
And the I remember a chap I once met and chatted to a long , long time ago, in a magnificent old building – a building that held memories in its walls from almost the time Canberra was born. The Canberra club.
Stage time, stage time, stage time – I can still recall them.
Perhaps repeating them 3 times helped. ( ah my mistake – they were only repeated twice) 🙂
To get to the first floor, you climbed a set of stairs woodpanelled walls on the side – or if you dared you took a lift (an elevator) fitting only 2 or 3 people – the smell of carpet closing in all around – as it rose – as time slowed down – in your ascension you crawled towards heaven. I swear to God that this is the slowest lift in all Christendom.
My parallel story to yours however is this:
No matter whether the busking day started quietly (meaning slowly in terms of income), or whether it was quiet in the middle of the day, or it was quiet in the evening,
If i persevered then I would get the same amount of money +/- 10% every Friday with very very few exceptions over 2 years – every Friday. Somedays the money would flow in in the morning, sometimes at lunch, sometimes last thing at night.
A statistician could explain this away – but you know, i was living on faith alone here because there was absolutely no reason for anyone to give me any money at all – yet i never went home with a (comparatively) empty pocket.
Being on the street meant that I started to meet many more people than I had ever done in my life. We have some beggars in Canberra and I got to know many by name – some are genuine some are not. I found I could talk to anyone and genuinely appreciate the experience. It is humbling to speak to people who are homeless, or have suffered unbelievable hardship in their life.
With regard to audiences I discovered that large numbers of people don’t even know you are there but you persevere. On the other hand you notice the generosity of people. People who are as bad off or worse than you will give you money. People who have no money who will apologize to you because they have no change on them! Those that tell you how beautifully you sing. And if you take the time to speak with them, you find that everyone has a story and not only that you find that they know things that you do not. Not only things – but ideas – and suddenly you know these ideas and truths too. How good is that!
To cut a long story short, My adversity has made me a better person. I am now part of groups for people recovering from mental illness, or drug, alcohol or other sorts of addiction. i am able to bring all my skills including those from Toastmasters to the group. I am purely a member within that group.
You mention the coincidence of the scripture reading. I would hazard a guess that there are other coincidences that happen to you.
Many people will explain away coincidences, by saying that so many things happen in 1 or 2 days that you are sure to have some coincidences. Yet when you have , for want of a better term I would call a “Real Coincidence” YOU know it. You know they cannot be explained away. For me they often have to so with a Name , something quite obscure that recurs within a day.
I have them all the rime know.
That is why I KNOW God exists He shows it to me every day.
Other things happen, that are not generally called coincidences – but which confirm this knowledge.
Eg. You have offended a FaceBook friend by breaching an etiquette you didn’t know existed. How can you make amends? You go into an educational toy shop almost by chance – next to the counter are a set of fluffy animal toys – all have big eyes like owls. Including owls.
You remember that your Facebook friend (who in real life is the wife of your Philippines born friend) loves owls. Anything to do with owls. you buy 2 owls and and the one and only purple flying dragon with big owllike eyes that is there for yourself.
You drive over to your FB friends place and leave a note. Later that evening you receive a text from the husband “Emy absolutely loves the two owls. Thank you very much….. Emy will write to you in the morning ” [ I hadn’t realized she had been ill explaining why it was her husband that txted]
How good is that! I had told her husband the night before that I did not know how I could make amends. All is well now.
Perhaps when I learn to tell stories better, I will tell you the story of how a 60 year old man, who retired early at 55 with a good pension and a subsequent inheritance a year later managed to give away around $300,000 to people in the Philippines and almost lost his house on which he now has a mortgage.
From what I can tell this guy has recently lost his anxiety and depression of the last 6 years and has no fear anymore. Each day is fun – almost like a barrel of monkeys.I’ll check out first whether this guy will let me tell you his story. I am pretty confident I know his thoughts on this matter and it will be ok.
God bless
Russell