Money makes the World go around? - Part 3
I was one of the top 10 Sales agents for Century 21 in San Diego, CA in 1987. I was making $125,000 + a year in Sales commissions and more by investing in Real Estate. The real estate market was booming in San Diego and I worked very hard to become successful. I owned several different pieces of investment property and I could see I was well on my way to becoming a millionaire soon! I thought this was what I really wanted.
I can remember I had a framed poster on my desk that had a voluptuous blonde sitting on a Bentley with a glass of champagne in her hand. The caption under it said in big letters, “SUCCESS”. This is what I truly thought success was made of; money, sex, power, material possessions. I wasn’t very happy so I figured I just needed more of all of that stuff and then everything would be fine.
In December of 1987 it was time for me to set goals for the next year. I remember thinking something like “I have made my goals the last 4 years and I keep making more money and my life is getting WORSE EACH YEAR! I am unhappy most of the time. My wife and I fight constantly. My kids are suffering from all the turmoil in our broken home and on top of that I am totally burned out! How can I possibly set my goals to make MORE MONEY next year?”
I then came to the conclusion that the root of all my problems had to be my wife. If she would just respect ME more, do what I say, listen to ME, leave ME alone when I need privacy, etc. then everything would be okay. I was so ME centered and I couldn’t of course blame MYSELF for our troubles. It just had to be her fault, not MINE. I was providing a very good income for us. I thought I was doing what was right for a man to do by being a good provider. In the mean time I started going out drinking at night, flirting with the office secretary, who was about to be divorced, and planning my own escape! Yes, a new wife would solve all of my problems! I was convinced that this was the only answer.
I remember going out to lunch one day about this time with the above mentioned office secretary. She was a nice girl who was also struggling in her marriage and she saw no way to get out of it easily either. As we got into her car to head to a Chinese restaurant, she picked up a religious tract someone had left under the wiper blade on the windshield of her car. She glanced at it, giggled and handed it to me and said, “Here is the answer to your all your problems!” It said something like “God is the Answer” on the front of it. Inside it describe how a relationship with Jesus Christ can straighten out you life and make things right for a person if they live for Him. I laughed at her and said “Oh yeah right! Just what I need!” I scoffed at such a silly idea as I only knew of Jesus Christ as a cuss word, but I did subconsciously stash the tract in my jacket pocket.
About a month after receiving that tract, the 1988 Super Bowl was to be played in San Diego. The two teams in it that year were the Washington Redskins and the Denver Broncos. I was given a free ticket to the Super Bowl Breakfast they were having the day before the game. I had no idea it was anything but a Breakfast for some of the coaches, players, etc. It turned out to be a special event that is held now every year before the Super Bowl to award a selected athlete for being the Most Inspirational Player for that year in the NFL. It was put on by a Christian organization called Athletes in Action.
The main speaker that year was the Head Coach of the Washington Redskins, Joe Gibbs. I was excited to be able to see him and hear what he had to say. What he shared really shook me as he spoke about his life and how he was making a lot of money and how he sometimes felt guilty for treating his family unfairly due to his responsibilities as a head coach of an NFL team. He talked about how important his family was to him and how he had a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. I had really never heard of such a thing explained. I had grown up in a dead church and I knew nothing of God at all. I had no idea what being “born again” meant and I remember being puzzled by people with bumper stickers touting their boss being a Jewish Carpenter. I had no idea why they would say such a thing! I mean who cares if your boss is Jewish?
The Lord Jesus began reaching out to me that night through Coach Gibbs and I said a short prayer to ask Jesus to come into my life and help me be the man that I wanted to be. For the first time in awhile I felt I had some hope that maybe my marriage could be saved. I was told I was now a “child of God”, that I had eternal life and that I was forgiven of all my sins. I was given a small booklet but I never heard from anyone and I didn’t really experience God much at all that I could remember. I went to the Super Bowl the next day and I was so tempted to bet a lot of money on the Redskins for I knew they couldn’t lose having a coach like Joe Gibbs. I figured God had to be on their side but I felt guilty about trying to make money on my “inside info” so I didn’t bet on them. They ended up winning 44-10, but I was happy I did the right thing for once and didn’t gamble on the game. (end of Part 3)