WHO DO WE TURN TO?

WHO DO WE TURN TO?

What do you do when your life seems to be falling apart? How do you react? 
Who do you turn to first for help or guidance? 
How do you perceive your situation? 
Over the last few months of sharing my experiences on face book I have had the honor of being contacted by a number of facebook friends who shared with me their intense personal trauma. One face book friend just found out he has a large brain tumor (and is going in for surgery soon) , another had recently received the diagnosis of a very debilitating disease, while others have messaged me about struggling with failed marriages, estrangement from their children or loss of employment. The questions of who do you turn to and how do you perceive your situation are critical when you are facing things that seem (and often are) overwhelming.

    Around 13 years ago, I was in a tremendously tenuous financial situation. A business that I owned was failing. Due to some bad business decisions on my part (expending too quickly), coupled with an economic downturn AND substantial employee theft; I found myself over almost $250,000 in debt. When I finally woke up and realized the seriousness of my financial situation--I immediately closed the first location and scheduled a meeting with a Christian attorney for some legal (and hopefully spiritual counsel. At my first meeting with my Christian lawyer he looked at my financials and told me that it was too soon to make a decision on bankruptcy. In his words, “We serve a big God--give it 3 months and lets reevaluate at that point.” I struggled through the next few months until my next meeting with the attorney. During that next few months I was falling behind on sales taxes and the debt load was getting deeper. To pay my business bills (and payroll) I was starting to use my credit cards. I had two main credit cards, each with a $20,000 limit and I was using both those cards to prop up my one remaining store. Although the interest rates on both cards was less than 5%--I quickly found out that the credit card companies can increase your credit card interest rates up to 33% if you are late on a few payments. And I was late on quite a few! At that next meeting with my attorney, after looking at my books he told me that I needed to declare bankruptcy immediately. Although my first retail store was incorporated, which shielded me personally from most of the debt, I felt bankruptcy was still wrong in my situation. The decision to declare (or not to declare bankruptcy in my case) is a pretty stressful decision. I’m not making a statement of whether it’s right or wrong for anyone else. In my mind (and heart) however, it would be a bad example for me to close my Christian owned business and not pay off my debtors. Regardless of how I got into that financial chasm ultimately I was the owner, and I was responsible for paying off those creditors. So I went against my lawyers advice and personally assumed all that debt. 
Now prior to that business failure, I had grown accustomed to being successful in all my endeavors. I am and have been very successful in my military career as well as in my endeavors as an entrepreneur. Although I was a Christian and very involved in my church, my focus was not very clear. At that point in my life I was really concerned with projecting an image of being a financial success and my “religion” for the most part was contained within the hours of Wednesday evening Bible study and Sunday morning church services. 

    After I assumed that debt personally--I remember being so desperate for answers that I would spend hours online typing out prayer requests which I sent to various prayer websites--hoping that somehow who I perceived as a distant, ambivalent God would hear my prayers because of my perseverance. Little did I know that not only was God NOT distant or aloof, but my loving Creator was already using these hardships to show His affection for me. Over the next 10 years I saw multiple situations of God’s provision for me and my family (one story which I previously shared about getting a bike for my son). Although I wasn't happy being in that place of dependence, I started learning how to trust in God’s faithfulness even if the situation seemed hopeless. Although it took over 10 years, I eventually paid off all my creditors. During that period of time I experienced multiple situations of seeing God meet my needs when I had no one or nowhere else to turn to.

Daneille Snowden [Blog Editor]: Brian and I are friends from our high school youth group and had recently reconnected on facebook. Also, I was there when he first accepted Christ in 1982 at a Keith Green concert. I have been following his Facebook posts on his journey back into intimacy with God and offered to share them on a blog. Check out my blog: http://snowdenwiththefam-daneille.blogspot.com/