There’s a story that was popular back in the 1980’s. It was centered around a boy named Timmy. Seems he was born into family of the most negative nature. Life sucked, everything always went wrong, and they especially didn’t like anyone who saw good in anything. They had a son, named Timmy, who wasn’t like the rest of the family. He always had a smile. He was upbeat, and looked for the positive in any situation. This did not sit well with the family. Misery loves company so it’s said. They felt it was time to break Timmy’s spirit.
So, when his birthday rolls around, Timmy finds no present, just a note directing him to the shed out back. Like a lighting bolt, he zeros in on the shed at full speed, slinging open the door. By the time his parents had made it to the shed, they were anticipating to find Timmy sporting a dejected look. Hopefully, crying tears of disappointment, they wished.
Instead, he was in the middle of this huge pile of horse manure, scooping handfuls at a time, tossing it to the side. When he sees his parents, he gleefully cheers, “I can’t believe I got a pony, and he must be in here somewhere.” “He’s bound to be a good sized one, too. Look at all this crap!”
The story always ends there, and delivers a solid point. However, I often thought about what happens when Timmy gets to the bottom of the pile, and there’s no pony.
Intersection between faith and disappointment
Over the last several years we have been on an incredible journey. We undertook what we had envisioned as a simple three year workout plan for a failing family business. Instead, it has taken much longer, enduring a four year lawsuit brought about by a family member, and created personal financial hardship.
During the ordeal, I reached a point where I literally dropped to my knees, and surrendered the business to God. The issues were far beyond my ability, and our resources to fix. The easy path, would have been to walk away from the business, but we believed God wanted us to continue. This required incredible faith. After committing, and completely trusting in God, things actually got worse, but miraculously things would fall into place, as we encountered each obstacle.
We had grown accustomed to God providing at just the right time. Often an unexpected payment would arrive just in the nick of time, allowing us to keep our utilities from being disconnected at the business. Inadvertently, we perhaps had started to take this for granted.
There’s a huge pile, but no Pony.
While we’ve made huge strides, we still are fighting cash flow issues. Recently, we were faced with having our utilities disconnected, if we couldn’t make the payment. We really weren’t worried, as we have been here before. God has delivered time, and time again. I was confident that the funds would arrive. We were expecting payment from a couple of clients, and I imagined, that would be what saved the day.
It didn’t happen.
We had a visit from the utility company with a disconnect order. We’ve learned that they typically won’t cut on the first visit, but if payment isn’t made within the next day or two, all bets are off.
This was on a Friday, and I shared a little of our story, with the gentleman out to pull the plug. As expected he didn’t cut us, and he hoped we could make the payment by Monday. He shared that the order would get sent back out the next week, perhaps into the hands of a person who would happily disconnect us. I tried not to worry, and still had faith the funds would arrive.
They didn’t. We were at the bottom of the pile and there was no Pony.
When the utility company came back out the following week, I had moved from believing we would keep the power on, to believing we would be able to get reconnected soon. This was a stretch, as we were past due a couple of months. In order to reconnect we would have to pay everything past due, current, plus a deposit. Keeping it on, only required the past due amount paid. Having to pay it all, would be an amount that exceeded any expectation of a quick reconnect.
Our utility bills are massive, and we had always been a couple months behind. I had tried previously to get some of it on a payment plan. They were nice, but firmly stated the answer was no.
The same gentleman from the week before was back out. Instead of pulling the plug, he hands me the phone. He had taken it upon himself to track down someone that would help us. We were able to move the past due amount to a repayment plan. Another miracle.
It’s interesting that God didn’t deliver in the manner we expected. We had been taking for granted he would always provide the money in the nick of time. Perhaps he was teaching us a few things, one at least, that while he is indeed a God of provision, his methods are ever changing.
I can’t say I was totally worry free, but I can say that we did have enough faith, that we knew that we would be OK, if we had lost the utilities. Somehow we would have made it through as God would provide. We’ve learned that if you truly trust in God, you will endure whatever you’re going through. We often fail at living a life of “Joy in all circumstances”, but that is indeed our goal. Life in Christ won’t always be smooth sailing, but you’ll get through it, and be better for it.
I believe when Timmy got to the bottom of the pile, and couldn’t find a pony, he wasn’t wavered one bit. Perhaps he imagined the pony got out of the shed, and found his way to a traveling circus. In his mind, maybe he could see his pony, regally dressed, and providing smiles to all the children that rode upon him.
We have control of our thoughts. I like Timmy, try to chose thinking of the good, and searching for it, in every situation.
Not always easy, but always a better view.
rescued and restored