Today’s scripture: Proverbs 23:1-9 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Robin Herman):
My last career was in the technology field, and I now own my own business. It seems greed has become a full time job sometimes.
The technology side is full of hackers and passwords. Protection schemes you’ve got to get around and behind. Frustrating. I have a password protected app just to hold my passwords. Different passwords, different requirements. It started off easy a few years ago. My password was always the name of my most recent dog that had passed away. Then I had to add numbers, so their age worked. Then a capital letter, ok, that’s easy. Now they want some sort of special character. I give up. There are only a few ways to dress up Bailey15. As the requirements change, so do my passwords. So, when logging on to a website I not only have to remember which dog, but how long ago was it — and when did the next one pass and do I include their age, a capital letter, a special character? UGH. I’m sorry, you have made too many attempts to log on and you will now need to enter your email address. I’m sorry, that email address is not recognized in our system. Please try again, I’m sorry, you’ve have entered too many email addresses that our system does not recognize. . . Oh for the love of technology and hackers!
Since I’ve opened the business, I’ve been scammed more times than I can count. Most of the time they just try, but a couple times, I must confess, I’ve fallen for it. Early on a guy came in needing to borrow $40 to get his truck to his mom’s. Gee, he never came back. There have been dozens more that I haven’t fallen for, but I also never feel good about turning them away.
At one point, my website was hacked. Not to get anything from me, but to use the server to send out their spam emails. I ended up, after weeks of fighting with it, having to move to another hosting account. That was a project I didn’t have the time or energy for. Right afterward, it was a credit card scheme. Very frustrating, and again, hours upon hours of writing letters to the BBB and Attorney General, meeting with a lawyer and trying to stop this before it gets out of control.
I find myself sometimes waking up angry. Angry at them for trying to steal things and angry at myself for getting involved. I don’t want to become some awful person who won’t even listen to people when they have a need or something to offer but I don’t know…
But the good side of all of this is that I find myself having to deal with my own greed. My greed manifests itself in my self-righteous anger that says, “How dare they take my hard earned time and money!” I’m running an honest business whose proceeds go to save lives of dogs that people have thrown away. I have to remember how fortunate I am, and in my angry and frank chat with God this morning, I was reminded that Jesus died for them too — and ‘they’, the thieves, are a part of living a good life, and some of these things are just the cost of doing business.
I suppose these things are also a cost of trying to live an honest life, and my rewards will not be in an easy time or in freedom from petty larceny, but in being able one day to be with my treasures that I’m storing in heaven.
Thought for the day: My mom says, “God, please don’t teach me any lessons today” and then chuckles. That’s my prayer for me, today.
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