500

So I have car trouble. It's funny, for about ten years now, it seems like whenever anyone in my family gets at least a hundred dollars more than we need to survive, something goes wrong with a car, and everybody gets cleaned out.

Now I'm hardly a car expert, but the nice man at the repair place said something to the effect of, "Your timing belt grumble grumble zig zag, *unintelligable sounds*, durka 500 dollars."

500 dollars. Count 'em. It's a lot. I'm a college student/youth minister who aspires to be a teacher. So your 500 dollars and my 500 dollars are extremely different. My 500 dollars is acheived by being bit, kicked, scratched, spit on, and then gets squandered on rubber belts. Seriously. Every word of it is true.

So where am I going with this? Why right into my own flaws, as usual. I have this terrible "Why Me?" attitude whenever I have money troubles. Seriously, it's a stupid way to live, especially for someone who should basically be accustomed to money problems by now. I always react the same way; run right home, sit down and whine to God about how nothing works out for me.

James makes it clear though. "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds." That's pretty cut and dry. He doesn't say to consider it joy when I get an easy fix to a big problem. He doesn't say to consider it joy when everything's going my way. He simply says it. Even when nothing is working out, even when things suck, even when I'm being drug right back down into debt yet again, there's no excuse for behaving anyway other than with joy.

So the point? I'm going to try to be more joyful this week. 500 bucks worth of suffering; that's a lot of joy.

(jake)


-If you'd like to make a donation to the Jake Owens Car Relief Fund, send all donations to:
Ghetto Ride
1125 E 8th Box 651
York, NE 68467