Buying on credit is robbing next year's crop. Author unknown
I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me strength. At the moment I have all I need, more than I need! I am generally supplied with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus. They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable to God and pleases him. And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:12, 13, 18, 19 NLT
This week at an AA meeting I shared a little about a time in my life in 1978 when I was homeless. I had been fired from a job that I had in 1976 because of drinking, and the year of 1977 I hitchhiked around the state drawing my unemployment, crashing at different pads, and relying on my mom. I drank alcohol and did drugs wherever and whenever possible. I was a bum. My bumming continued for the next two years. In the early summer of 1978 I came to the conclusion that Kansas City was my problem and moved to Springfield thinking that all I needed was a change in residence to make life better. I had a few dollars and checked into a cheap hotel downtown. I started giving blood at the plasma center to get enough money to buy booze, baloney, and bread. I sat on the town square with the hobos and shared their wine. My life had degenerated much from just a few years prior when I had graduated from Penn Valley Community College. I have noticed that it takes many years, sometimes a lifetime to move up the social ladder of life, but only a few short years or even months to move down to the bottom. I ran out of money quickly and had to move out of the hotel. I located an old abandoned warehouse with a concrete truck dock in back that had a hole in it big to enter. Inside I found a cardboard box big enough to hold a refrigerator. Someone had been there before me and had called the place home. I moved in. Everything I owned I carried in a little blue bag. I had arrived at my final destination in life unless some changes could be made. I ate at the mission, gave blood, and drank on the square with the bums. I was lonely and longed for relationships that were meaningful. I remember one night when I was at the mission for dinner and this young preacher boy told me I needed a change in my life. I knew this, from where I was standing in life everything was up. I was at my bottom. He told me I needed to repent and to ask God for forgiveness. He and I knelt at a folding metal chair and he led me in prayer. I walked away feeling no different, I though no big deal. I soon hitchhiked back to KC thinking that Springfield possibly was my problem. My drinking continued to escalate and in 1980 I found myself doing time for DWI. I attempted to change after this by living in an AA halfway house. This lasted for only a few months. In 1983 I again found myself doing time for another DWI but this time the seed of hope that had been planted by that young preacher boy in Springfield received a little water from a corrections officer. It germinated and I accepted Jesus Christ and my Lord and Savior. For the next fifteen years I had a Savior in my life but the Lord part was off and on, mostly off. I was my own lord most of the time. I managed to get a few years of not drinking here and there, but generally my life was unmanageable and not peaceable. In 1998 by the grace of a loving God I surrendered, not to drugs and alcohol, but to Jerry. I gave up the fight and won the victory. Doesnt make since to believe in a victorious defeat, but that is exactly what it was. God had done for me what I could not do for myself .JRE
I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me strength. At the moment I have all I need, more than I need! I am generally supplied with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus. They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable to God and pleases him. And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:12, 13, 18, 19 NLT
This week at an AA meeting I shared a little about a time in my life in 1978 when I was homeless. I had been fired from a job that I had in 1976 because of drinking, and the year of 1977 I hitchhiked around the state drawing my unemployment, crashing at different pads, and relying on my mom. I drank alcohol and did drugs wherever and whenever possible. I was a bum. My bumming continued for the next two years. In the early summer of 1978 I came to the conclusion that Kansas City was my problem and moved to Springfield thinking that all I needed was a change in residence to make life better. I had a few dollars and checked into a cheap hotel downtown. I started giving blood at the plasma center to get enough money to buy booze, baloney, and bread. I sat on the town square with the hobos and shared their wine. My life had degenerated much from just a few years prior when I had graduated from Penn Valley Community College. I have noticed that it takes many years, sometimes a lifetime to move up the social ladder of life, but only a few short years or even months to move down to the bottom. I ran out of money quickly and had to move out of the hotel. I located an old abandoned warehouse with a concrete truck dock in back that had a hole in it big to enter. Inside I found a cardboard box big enough to hold a refrigerator. Someone had been there before me and had called the place home. I moved in. Everything I owned I carried in a little blue bag. I had arrived at my final destination in life unless some changes could be made. I ate at the mission, gave blood, and drank on the square with the bums. I was lonely and longed for relationships that were meaningful. I remember one night when I was at the mission for dinner and this young preacher boy told me I needed a change in my life. I knew this, from where I was standing in life everything was up. I was at my bottom. He told me I needed to repent and to ask God for forgiveness. He and I knelt at a folding metal chair and he led me in prayer. I walked away feeling no different, I though no big deal. I soon hitchhiked back to KC thinking that Springfield possibly was my problem. My drinking continued to escalate and in 1980 I found myself doing time for DWI. I attempted to change after this by living in an AA halfway house. This lasted for only a few months. In 1983 I again found myself doing time for another DWI but this time the seed of hope that had been planted by that young preacher boy in Springfield received a little water from a corrections officer. It germinated and I accepted Jesus Christ and my Lord and Savior. For the next fifteen years I had a Savior in my life but the Lord part was off and on, mostly off. I was my own lord most of the time. I managed to get a few years of not drinking here and there, but generally my life was unmanageable and not peaceable. In 1998 by the grace of a loving God I surrendered, not to drugs and alcohol, but to Jerry. I gave up the fight and won the victory. Doesnt make since to believe in a victorious defeat, but that is exactly what it was. God had done for me what I could not do for myself .JRE
