How Do You Make God Laugh?
How Do You Make God Laugh?…Tell Him, “I have a plan.”
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways,” says ADONAI. As high as the sky is above the earth are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9 CJB)
During our brief Monday call, Meagan stated she had been speaking to another financial advisor who told her the contracts she recently signed will lose her money and have negative tax implications. I informed her that we needed to set a face to face so I could walk her through the facts and the contractual guarantees, after which she will rest assured her money is safe. She agreed to wait for my follow up email with dates and times to meet. When I sent an email with meeting options over a week out, she informed me I was a liar and asked to cancel her contracts.
While I attempted to salvage the relationship, Meagan was adamant I was not trustworthy and refused to speak to me or my business partner. I was dumbfounded. A “liar”?! How a relationship I knew was “meant to be,” could turn out so poorly, left me more than confused.
I had structured my business such that I only worked with people who I felt the Lord called me to help. I made sure potential clients understood, “While money and your financial wealth plan is why we are meeting, please know the Lord may have other plans for how I should serve you.” While my ego never liked the idea that someone would choose not to do business with me, I entered the financial services business to be a servant, not a salesperson.
I genuinely liked Meagan and her husband as individuals and as a couple. I could see them as “friends” which is why I also partnered with another advisor because, inevitably, my relationship with my clients would transform beyond the bounds of professional friendliness and I had to ensure they never felt as if I had abandoned their wealth building strategy.
When I got gut-level honest, Megan’s reaction hurt my heart. I had been rejected by someone who I sincerely wanted to help. A rejection of the worst kind – to be slandered by a friend with no opportunity to state my case…..and, yet, I had to say something because Meagan and I worked within the same community. I wrote a letter.
I explained my disappointment that she had not given me a chance to help her because she lost a lot of money and there was no need. Specifically, I highlighted the fact that because we were professional colleagues, she would be out of line to disparage me especially without proof of any wrongdoing on my part. She never acknowledged my letter in writing or in person and we had multiple professional interactions after the incident. While we were both cordial, I always wondered what exactly happened that she lost faith in me as a professional and, more importantly, as a woman of integrity. In fact, she was more than cordial when we were together, she was warm and friendly. I was definitely confused.
…..three years later I found myself sitting next to Meagan at a professional association’s annual conference and I had to address the elephant in the room, “Meagan, would you mind speaking to me about what happened all those years ago? We are leaders within this association and I would really like to bring some closure to a situation I never fully understood.” I barely finished my sentence when Meagan immediately began to apologize and explain the personal “chaos” that had become her life during that time. She made it clear she knew I was an honorable woman and that I had not lied. She confessed she was under so much pressure and so confused in her personal life, “I just lost it for a little while.”
We ended our time together in an embrace agreeing to let bygones be bygones.
…three more years pass and I hear the Lord tell me to talk to Meagan about Him. I was very nervous to ask Meagan my initial question. We had been discussing business and I flipped the script:
Megan and I met at a local deli and spent a few hours talking. I shared how I came to know Christ and, in the process, answered a lot of her questions. About three hours into our conversation, I found myself saying words I had no control over, “Do you think you are ready to make a decision for Christ?” Meagan sat up straighter and eagerly replied, “Yes!”….at which point I went into crisis prayer mode as I had no idea what to do next…..but God!
I grabbed Meagan’s hands in a crowded deli and told her I would pray and at some point she should repeat after me. All the noise of the lunchtime diners faded away and the air stood still as I thanked God for Meagan’s life and her desire to claim her inheritance as His daughter and my sister. I eventually asked Meagan to repeat after me and ask God to accept her as she accepts Him as her Lord and Saviour. She confessed her need for him and thanked Him for His sacrifice on the Cross so she would not have to endure the full consequence of her sin and missing the mark of His perfection.
As I closed out the prayer thanking God that Meagan is a new creation, fully redeemed, fully transformed, holy, righteous, blameless and pure, perfectly provided for, perfectly secure as He is now in charge of her life, Meagan began to cry. She knew she had become a Daughter of the God of Most High and so did I.
A relationship that began in 2012 with a business agreement that ended poorly, six years later transformed into what God had in mind all along – He wanted His daughter to come back home!
CONFESSION – In 2012 when I told Meagan “money” is my excuse to have conversations with people while I figure out what God has planned for me as His servant, I was not fully aware what I was saying. So, if you ask me today, “What do you do?” I might answer, “I am a servant of God cleverly disguised as a Financial Advisor, Wealth Educator & Happiness Coach.”
Very few people engage in the process to achieve happiness in every area of their life. For those who do, for those who participate in “The Happiness Formula,” sustainable and inexplicable happiness is the only outcome.
Kasandra Vitacca Mitchell is an Author, Speaker, Teacher of Wealth & Happiness with a mission to bring research, wisdom, and authenticity to others via “The Happiness Formula.” (Coming January 2019 #TheHappinessFormulaBook)