The Lord Gives and the Lord Takes Away . . . and Gives Again.
The only thing I need concern myself with is my self-worth.
In September 2011 I attended a wealth psychology seminar with T. Harv Eker, a leading self-development guru, who has gained the affectionate branding of ‘financial evangelist’. Harv maintains that the only thing determining a person’s overall state of wealth is his/her financial thermostat. Just like a room temperature thermostat keeps you in the same state of thermal comfort, (or discomfort in my case in most public buildings!). Whatever level the thermostat’s set at determines how it will be. It gets set early in life by what he calls your ‘money blueprint’. Learn to set it higher, and before long it will rise. Anyway, I took away the general idea with me, along with the specific changes I made to my own money blueprint and personal wealth thermostat, (set for most of my life not far above zero!), did the daily declarations diligently for the next ninety days – and then promptly forgot all about it. Nothing changed – until later in 2012 when I suddenly began selling work in much greater quantities – and ended up almost doubling my annual turnover, which has thankfully continued.
“The Lord gives and the law takes away” is a quote from the Bible book of Job, (pronounced ‘Jobe’ – it’s a man’s name). I think ‘job’, as in occupation of work, might be just as appropriate though – seeing that the storyline relates so much to profit and loss. But with Job it wasn’t only about his finances, it was about everything he had – his camels, his sheep, his health, his home, and even his children; in fact, everything but his life. In other words, what he lost – and regained – was an abundance of wealth in every sense of the word. The prime lesson generally extracted from the book, as far as religion goes, is that of integrity to God. “Curse God and die” was his concerned and embittered wife’s advice when things were at their lowest ebb, with Job sitting in the dust scraping at his elephantiasis. “You must have done something wrong to deserve all this misfortune” was the counsel of his three trusted confidants – the infamous Job’s comforters . But as far as Job was concerned he’d done nothing to deserve all the trouble, and he wasn’t going to curse God either – no way ever. So against all odds, he kept his integrity, and the upshot was – he eventually got everything back again in double amount, (excepting kids – which amount was the same.)
If you wanted to take religion out of the equation, the story reads like a dramatically vivid psycho-spiritual lesson in human well-being, (or ‘weal’, the Anglo-Saxon word translated as wealth.) Despite all the troubles that came his way, despite all his losses, Job was not willing to give up his personal integrity – the thing he most believed in and treasured in the depth of his heart. In other words, he would not trade his inner sanctum for anything. That was the man’s true worth – not his exterior trappings, things he owned or even the children who were his progeny. By maintaining that inner sense of worth, adding value with a lesson in humility, (“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth?” said the Lord to Job), and finally the lesson of unconditional forgiveness, (when he made specific sacrifices in behalf of his so-called friends), and up shoots his value again. In a few years Job turned his whole life around from severity to renewed prosperity. But with the added ingredient of a greater awareness. Many multi-millionaires have been seen to do a similar thing at some point in their lives. Lose it all – and regain it even more so.
One day on a beach not far from where I live, a friend of mine and I found a pound coin on a rock. We were pleased and felt lucky. But I managed to drop it down amongst the boulders, and we then spent half the day trying to retrieve it. We eventually managed it – and left the beach ecstatic. But how we felt had nothing to do with the value of a pound coin. The value we added to ourselves that day was about experiencing the quality of determination to succeed – to do what it takes, leave no stone unturned, against all odds. The boulders we were dealing with were almost immovable. The ingenuity needed to extract the metal from where it had become lodged was beyond words – but we did it! It was as if we had somehow effortlessly found it in order to lose it – to find it again only with extreme effort. As if we only found it for the lesson contained within the experience. I’ve not seen my friend for many years, and can’t even remember her name, but I bet she still remembers the story as well as I do. It’s worth its weight in gold.
I’ve now told you three separate stories – two anecdotes from my own experience, and one from anonymous folklore, reportedly penned by a man named Moses about 1500 years before Christ, (give or take a century or so). You’ll no doubt have your own current real-life story that relates to my three. And you will probably see parallels, and maybe have realisations. This is how the great Mind of Man works – all interwoven – intertwined in meaning. We all want prosperity, to be wealthy in every sense of the word. And we are indeed worth so much more than we think.
Steve
