Artwork Credit: “Abraham Lifted Up His Eyes And Beheld A Ram Caught In A Thicket By His Horns” by Sarah Buell Dowling

 
Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, this year I’ll be making my famous sausage-cheese balls for Thanksgiving, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share moments from my life where God has demonstrated his provision.

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What I Learned Yesterday:
Given that Mark has the Wednesday episode, Mandy has the Thursday episode, and you all have the Friday episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday, today I will be wrapping up my month long look at gratitude. It’s been a really rewarding exercise for me and I hope that you have benefitted from it as well.

It was about a month ago that I put together my list of topics to share for the month of November. I wrote down the list in no particular order, made no adjustments to the order of the list once I wrote them down, and was surprised multiple times at how perfect the timing was on some of the topics.

For example, I did not intentionally schedule the topic of marriage immediately following my cousin’s wedding, but doing so gave me a great experience to feed off of. I also didn’t intentionally schedule yesterday’s episode about food and water to be shared the week of Thanksgiving. Similarly, I had no idea what this month would have in store when I schedule today’s episode at the conclusion of the series.

Today’s lesson deals with provision. Now, you may be wondering how provision is different from yesterday’s topic of food and water. If you are, I assure you that you are not alone. In fact, earlier today I put together the featured image for this episode. I began my search for the right image by doing an image search for the word provision. Nearly every image that I found had food pictured. Many of them had pictures of bread and fish, tying in to the Biblical story of when Jesus provided a meal for thousands of people by using a boys lunch of fish and bread.

However, to me, provision is much more than that. The word provision is a derivative of the word provide…or is it the other way around? In fact, as I did more searching I found Google suggestions for the phrase, “Jehovah Jireh.” Jehovah Jireh is a Biblical name from the Old Testament which translates to, “The Lord Provides.” More specifically, it originates from the Genesis story of Abraham being willing to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, in obedience to the Lord. When God saw Abraham’s faith, he stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, and provided a ram as a sacrifice. That place on Mount Moriah was then called Jehovah Jireh, The Lord Provides.

The first time that God’s provision became powerfully clear to me was my sophomore year of college. I had spent my freshman year in the dorm, rooming with one of my high school friends. For our sophomore year we found a small, one bedroom, apartment just off campus. We had absolutely no furniture or dishes, but we were determined to make it our home.

I bought a small dining set from a co-worker, and that was really all we could afford. We thought that we would furnish the place a bit at a time. He slept on the floor in the bedroom and I slept on the floor in the living room. The previous tenant had left behind a chest of drawers and mirror, so we were really excited to have a place to put our clothes.

Almost instantly things started showing up. A friend of mine gave me a futon to sleep on. My roommate had a bed given to him. We had friends and family randomly show up with dishes and small appliances. One day a very nice coffee table and entertainment center showed up from a person my roommate attended church with. She said that she knew we had a need and felt like God had impressed upon her to help us.

One day I looked around and realized that we had a fully furnished apartment and the only thing we had purchased was that original dining set. God had provided the rest.

I’ve also been on the giving side of things.

I spent 2 years managing a bookstore in Texas. My second year there was really great and my store’s performance had improved so much that I earned two separate bonuses. The bonuses came at a time when my grandparents were really struggling financially. So Kari and I took the bonus checks, cashed them, and left the money on their porch in an anonymous looking envelope.
A few days later my grandma called me to tell me about the amazing surprise they had found. She told me all about how much it had blessed them and had provided for some of their needs. She was convinced that the money must have come from another member of our family. To this day she has no idea that Kari and I are the ones that left the money, and I like it that way. God used us to provide. He knows what we did, and that’s enough. Well, I guess now you know too. Don’t tell my grandma.

As you’ve listened to this podcast over the last few months, you’ve heard me mention that finances have been tight. I know it sounds weird to say that given that we just got back from a family vacation to Hawaii. The truth is that we paid for most of our Hawaii trip 6 – 8 months before we took the trip. We paid for the trip while we were in a different financial situation.

At that time I was earning enough income from TV Talk and my other clients to meet all of our financial needs and add a good sum to our savings account each month. However, as TV Talk scaled back, and eventually shut down, our finances took a big hit. Over the last 6 months we have had more expenses than income. Quarterly tax payments and other expenses have really put a drain on our savings. It’s not totally gone, but it’s a fraction of what it once was. Honestly, it’s getting scary.

Jehovah Jireh.

Through it all Kari and I have remained committed. We’ve remained committed to each other, achieving my entrepreneurial dream, and giving faithfully back to God. Each month we evaluate our financial standing, develop the plan for paying bills, and each do our part to make ends meet. We are both committed to doing everything we can to serve my existing clients, earn new clients, and stick with this dream. We also remain committed to our faith that God provides for us, and we respond in obedience by returning at least 10% of our income to the church and other ministries.

Have the last 6 months been a test of our faith? Absolutely. Has God been faithful to provide everything that we NEED? Absolutely.

It’s also been a great teaching opportunity for our kids. They now have a better understanding of the difference between wants and needs. I’m appreciative of that lesson. Last week we took money from our savings account and went shopping for impoverished kids. When my daughter asked why we were buying stuff for other people when we didn’t even have much for us, my wife took the opportunity to teach her about how we can always sacrifice something to give to those who have even less. I’m extremely grateful for that teaching moment.

Here’s what I’ve learned.

God provides. God has proven Himself faithful to me and through me in even more ways than these throughout my life.

At the beginning of this month I sent out invoices and, while it was closer to covering our expenses than any of the previous 5 months, it was still a shortfall. As we dipped into our savings account yet again and saw the balance come to a new low, Kari and I both freaked out a little. But then November happened.

This has been a great month. I landed a massive 50 episode and website project. I landed a new recurring client in California. I’ve consulted with more people than ever before. I have two new clients that are launching podcasts in January, and will likely also become recurring production clients.

When I send out invoices for November, it will be enough to cover our expenses. I’m projecting December to also be a positive income month. With birthdays and holidays that come this time of year, it’s especially gratifying to be able to have money to cover these occasions.

Through this process it’s not only been our kids that have learned some lessons. I’m looking forward to sharing some new lessons with you next week that I’ve learned through this time.

The truth is that I don’t know what the future holds. I may be on an upward climb financially that has a peak I can’t even fathom, or I may be facing several more months of just getting by. But here’s what I do know. God is faithful. He has proven His provision time after time in the past, and He does not change. God will always provide.

I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.

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