What you HAVE versus what you DO-is there a difference?

Wow!  That was terrific!  Very insightful.  I never really though of it that way before, but I believe that much of my life (as much as I really hate to admit it) is driven that way.  I have been guilt of making  E N O R M O U S  investments in material things because I wanted what I thought they could bring to the table.
Case in point, I invested nearly two-hundred-thousand dollars in professional PA gear, because I really wanted to become a more popular sound engineer.  Did that decision help to accomplish that goal?  Well maybe, a little.  So, yes there was some marginal benefit, but compared to the marginal cost it was a ridiculous misappropriation of resources.
The expensive sound equipment came with a huge monthly financial obligation, lots of maintenance expenses, and other losses in terms of equipment failures, theft, etc., and lots of additional expenses like expensive trailers for transportation, insurance, property taxes, interest expenses, storage fees, etc., etc., etc.
So, the dream I had of owning this fantastic sound system did very little to accomplish my real goal, but the marginal cost of ownership ended up putting me completely out of business eventually, and that ultimately destroyed my goal of becoming a more popular sound engineer.  Only now, years later, am I beginning to recover from my stupidity.
I sincerely hope that others can learn from our mistakes and realize that everything is always all about God, and how we can best serve Him.
Kevin, God bless you for this ministry.  It is such a welcomed break from so much of the junk that gets posted on the Internet each day.  I always look forward to your inspirational blog.  Let’s get together soon.  Dan Coleman, TCS
 

The first thought that popped to mind is, are we in love with the idea of having a boat or do we love the boat.  You can put that into many different contexts. Are you in love with the idea of having a ministry or are you in love with the ministry and what it will do.  If you are in love with the idea, many a person gets in and when the going gets tough they disappear.  They have to meet at some point.  (I am not saying we should put the ministry before God.  We should have our priorities.)

You can say the same thing about a bus.  Are you in love with the idea of having a bus or are you in love with the bus.  Is a bus something that is going to enhance your ministry and enable to do your ministry better and more effectively or is it something that is going to demand so much time it will hinder?  If you make that the central focus then it is in the wrong place and it will put major declension in the group.  Like Dan said, if you don’t make good decisions it can ultimately ruin you or put a major hurting on what you are trying to accomplish.  

I also thought of delegation.  I have a hard time with this a lot of times because I know the quality of work that I do and I know if I do it then it will get done to my standards.  If I let someone else do it then it might or might not get done and it might or might not be up to my standards.  Look at someone like Billy Graham.  If he discipled every single person that has gotten saved under his ministry he would never gotten anything else done and nowhere near the number would be Christians that are today.  But he has a team together of people that are equipped and by delegating that portion he is able to get much more done. 

I don’t know if I totally agree with the statement that what we own and what we do are not related.  They at some point have to meet in the middle and walk hand in hand.  If we dream about a bus and the time comes when we actually need one then those two meet.  The dream and the reality meet.  If they get off to one side or another then it can mean disaster and you more than likely become ineffective.  The goal is through keeping your focus on the right things other things will fall into place.

Thanks Eddie.

Hey Kev,
Good stuff as always….I love ya….thanks needed to hear that this morning.  Had the same thoughts here lately.  Always staying focused is the key…God always gives us a reality check….if we listen to him.  Learning to listen more to whats more important.  I miss you and Janna.
Thanks Kev,
cindy